The Force is Strong With This One! A Jedibot from Stanford

Students at Stanford University have created the ‘Jedibot’ by combing a dexterous robotic arm with a ‘lightsaber’ and the Microsoft Kinect sensor. Of course the hardware has some clever software backing up the JediBot as it goes through a set of pre-programmed attack moves to track and kill another Jedi Padawan. 

The Kinect sensors allow the robots to detect the location of the blue and green light sabers on the two robots allowing them to attack of defend their position. The customized software utilized directs the sensors in the Kinect to track random attack moves and counter them with defensive ones.

In fact the robotic arm almost mimics a real human swordfighter’s unpredictable attack patterns. Plus it has an ability to react to any perceived attacks that the opponent may make. Of course the speed and reaction time of this "Youngling" do still leave a lot of scope for improvements for full Jedi status.

The JeidBot was created as part of the three and half week Experimental Robotics course offered by Stanford University. Other students completing the course constructed robotic arms that could draw pictures, take photographs, play golf and flip burgers including adding ketchup.