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AI Monkey Robot

Posted by emmett on from the curious-george dept.

Sircus writes "The BBC is carrying this article regarding a robot 'monkey' that has been taught to swing from rung to rung of a ladder, using only the distance between the rungs and some basic equations about swinging. There's not much technical detail, but this is an interesting approach to the problem of dumb robots, and one which certainly gives the suits something pretty to look at."

5 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. More info... by Space+Cow · · Score: 4
    Ok, took me a while to dig this out, but here is a bunch of info from the booklet I received when I visited Prof Fukuda's lab. There are some nice graphs and such that unfortunately I can't include. Enjoy.

    From Reseach Activities 1998, Robotics and Mechatronics Laboratory of Micro System Control, Nagoya University.

    Brachiation Robot That Learns By Doing
    • Mobile robot moving from branch to branch dynamically like a long-armed ape.
    • Motion improvement by off-line learning.
    • Using real-time tracking system as a visual sensor
    • Using kinetic energy of center of gravity as evaluated value

    Study on the Control of a Two-link Brachiating Robbot via "Target Dynamics"
    • Wish to understand how dynamically dexterous taks can be achieved using physical insight into the designated task and intrinsic dynamics of the system.
    • Task is encoded as an output of a target dynamical system motivated by the pendulous motion of an ape's brachiation.
    • Extension to the "Irregular Ladder Problem" - brachiation on a ladder with irregular intervals.
    • Validation of the proposed strategy by numerical simulation and experimental implementation.
  2. Compare and Contrast... by rafial · · Score: 5

    ...this approach, with the one taken by Mark Tilden:

    The latest Smithosonian had an especially good article about him. Apparently his original demo 'bot was a robust walker that could clear most obstacles, run by all of 12 transistors.

    I think somebody needs to look at combining the approaches of AI based robots that make decisions based on modeling their world, and robots such as Tilden's that seem to simply have "body feel" for their environment. Perhaps a Tilden type robot body could carry a reasoning "head" that sets goals for the body to carry out. I think this would be much like ourselves. Imagine if you had to walk or jump with only your eyes to guide you. No sense of balance, or kinesthetic sense. I doubt you could do it. We shouldn't expect robots to do the same.

  3. Probably has great applications for walking robots by JudgePagLIVR · · Score: 5

    The same type of calculation of forces is necessary for the function of a walking robot. Now, with walking, you're dealing with a push instead of a pull, and feet that have to balance instead of arms that have to grip, but the calculations are similar.

    But most signifigant is that the robot has to try to grab the next rung, and if it doesn't, it has to figure out what adjustments to make on the fly. Simlarily, if a robotic step went wrong, the robot would have to recognise it, and correct itself before it fell

    --
    Judge Pag, the Learned, Impartial, and Very Relaxed
  4. Minor nit... by Falsch+Freiheit · · Score: 5

    This robot is emulating an ape (such as a gibbon) and not a monkey.

    Monkeys generally walk *on* the branches and leap from branch to branch. (Sometimes hanging from the branches to grab things, etc.)

    Apes are the critters that brachiate. Brachiation allows the animal moving around in the trees to be larger than if it leapt from branch to branch. (Of course, some of the "greater apes" (orangutan, gorilla, chimpanzee and us...) got big enough that they rarely go up in trees anymore -- a full grown silverback male gorilla would break most trees if it tried to climb them)

    I guess "robo-ape" doesn't sound as good as "robo-monkey" -- especially since most people think of gorillas and not gibbons when they hear "ape".

  5. Really cool to see! by Space+Cow · · Score: 5

    I will be studying under Prof Fukuda starting next fall. During the winter break, I went to Japan and was invited to his lab to see the various projects there. Besides the monkey robot, the projects that were most interesting to me were a cooperative micro robot project, a set of legs that learn to walk, and a feedback control system for an invasive surgery tool/camera.

    The monkey robot is currently most limited by the power/data cables that give it life and can only travel one or two bars before needing to be placed back where it started. It's motions are incredibly lifelike.

    For more information about the people and projects at Prof Fukuda's lab, check out this link to the English version of the web page.