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The competition on
designing the body and appearance of “National Humanoid Robot” was held at
Tehran University in a ceremony participated by Eng. Gholamreza Shafei, the
board of directors’ chairman of Industrial Development & Renovation Organization
of Iran (IDRO).

Shafei visited progress
of “National Humanoid Robot” and hybrid bus plans and investigated the humanoid
robot body designs showed in the competition.

Addressing the
university professors, faculty members and students present in the competition,
he said that the Ministry of Industries supported robotic plans first in 1998
and those days’ students, who are today’s professors, built robots and soon
after that the universities started designing robots and conducting researches
in this due.

Iran was ranked the
second among regional and Muslim countries in terms of science production in
2012, he mentioned adding based on the global experiences in terms of stable
development, paying attention to knowledge and scientific researches is the
factor to reach progress in the current century and the societies with fast
scientific development enjoys stronger economic and political status.

Each country’s status in robotic science has a direct
relation with its industrial status, because this science is based on the
industrial requirements, Shafei stated adding this science is almost new in our
country and most of robots required in Iran are imported from the other
countries.

He noted that different
platforms are required for designing a humanoid robot and it is clear that
designing these platforms directly or indirectly leads to macro industrial
development in the country, so robotic science is of great significance for
all-out development of the national industry.

“Humanoid Robot National Plan”, which is underway in Tehran
University through making 28 billion rials investment by Industrial Development
& Renovation Organization, is making the third
generation of Surena Robot that making it has placed Iran among the five
countries with technology of making humanoid robots.

A competition has been
held at Tehran University on designing the body of this robot and designs,
which are based on the Iranian-Islamic aspects, are prioritized for the
appearance of Iranian humanoid robot.

Shafei then visited
progress of (diesel-electric) hybrid bus making plan, which is underway through
support of IDRO and efforts of Tehran University’s researchers and professors. By
making these buses and using them in the public transportation fleet of the
megacities, air pollution and fuel consumption will fall by 50 and 30 percent,
respectively. The semi-industrial sample of hybrid bus will be soon ready for
mass production after conducting related tests and receiving required permits.