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On the Gripping Hand

eek_the_kat writes "The Sensor Fusion Project at Ishikawa Hashimoto Laboratory has developed a high speed visual feedback system called SPE-256. It allows the robot to track fast randomly moving objects and grasp them (movies here). The applications seem endless! I have seen many robot mpegs as of late, many courtesy of /., but these have to be some of the coolest I have ever come across. A must see."

13 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. Site is Slashdotted - and no comments! by Michael's+a+Jerk! · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here's the shameless Google Mirror

    A human being recognizes external environment by using many kinds of sensory information. By integrating these information and making up lack of information for each other, a more reliable and multilateral recognition can be achieved. The purpose of Sensor Fusion Project is to realize new sensing architecture by integrating multi-sensor information and to develop hierarchical and decentralized architecture for recognizing human beings further. As a result, more reliable and multilateral information can be extracted, which can realize high level recognition mechanism.

    Note that the site is mostly pictures, which explained why it went down so quickly. There's almost no decent text at all :-(

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    I'm not Seth.

    1. Re:Site is Slashdotted - and no comments! by cilix · · Score: 2, Informative

      Any reason the link you posted was to an IP? Seems like a crazy thing to do, since it could well lead to the google mirror being /.ed. That link presumably bypasses all their load balancing stuff.

      Not a biggy, just wondering if there was a reason that wasn't immediately obvious. (maybe that is the exact url that google gives out, which would be silly of them).

  2. Re:How fast by Harlow_B_Ashur · · Score: 2, Informative

    Got a look at two of the clips.

    I would describe the speed as on the order of 1/3 the speed of a dog being teased with a tennis ball.

    And the sequence looked about the same; the robot hand follows the ball back and forth just like a dog a then lunges out to grab it when it sees its opportunity.

  3. Re:Another VLSI breakthrough by deepchasm · · Score: 5, Informative

    This system uses VLSI instead of CCD

    Erm VLSI just means putting lots of stuff on one chip (Very Large Scale Integration). Do you mean "CMOS instead of CCD"?

    (more detailed explanation)

    The increased framerates possible using this technology, rather than CCD, probably help when doing fast motion detection as the robot in the article is doing.

  4. Looks familiar... by BenPollinger · · Score: 2, Informative

    This looked familiar - it's not so new, as it was on BoingBoing last October

    http://boingboing.net/2002_10_01_archive.html#8554 7387

    see also
    http://www.enorgis.com/arc20021013.htm#BlogID1043
    http://radio.weblogs.com/0103443/2002/10/10.html

    But it's still quite amazing - that's why it stuck in my mind I s'pose

  5. Applications? by the+uNF+cola · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, I can think of two :)

    sluggy glove ref 0
    sluggy glove ref 1

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    "I'm not bright. Big words confuse me. But Wanda loves me and that should be enough for you." - Cosmo

  6. mirror by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    i just put the movies over here as the site seems rather slow: PLEASE BE GENTLE PEOPLE!!!

  7. Re:Is it real? by BooRadley · · Score: 5, Informative
    How does the robot arm locate the object in a 3 dimensional space, using only one eye?

    The "eye" is really a high-speed sensor for a system of computers. The computers make calculations based on the fixed location of the camera and the variable, but known location of the robotic hand to determine the location in 3D space of the target. Then the target is stationary past a certain threshold time, the hand reaches out to grab it.

    The computer array constantly updates the position of the arm and hand to try and match the location of the target, and that's where you get the illusion of human movement.

    The human-like hand on the end of this arm is probably for the psychological benefit of investors, who would probably shit their pants at the sight of a high speed robotic claw grasping things dangled in front of it.

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    -- lk t lv ll th vwls t f wrds. T svs lts f tm t wrt bt ts pn n th ss t rd nd mks m lk lk cmplt dpsht.

  8. Nice Niven reference... by Enzo90910 · · Score: 2, Informative

    "On the gripping hand" :-)

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    I don't have much to add.
    1. Re:Nice Niven reference... by Guano_Jim · · Score: 2, Informative

      For the uninitated, "On the Gripping Hand" refers to an expression used by the three-armed "Moties" in the Niven/Pournelle series that begins with The Mote in God's Eye.

      When evaluating a decision, the Moties say, "on one hand, on the other hand, and on the gripping hand," giving them three options where a 2-handed human has two.

      Obligatory Amazon Link

      Good book, but buy it from a used bookstore if you can.

  9. Mirror up an ready to go. by traid · · Score: 3, Informative
    http://pr0n.biz/stuff/robotics/robotics.tar (8mb)

    I tar'd all the mpegs into one file for easier downloading. Enjoy

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    None of us are as dumb as all of us.
  10. Mirror: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Mirror for both sites: http://www.nwps.ws/mirror/

  11. Re:From the videos by lechuck80 · · Score: 2, Informative
    The robot arm really is that fast, and smooth. I work for the company that sold the arm to the university. (Shameless plug-- www.barrett.com).

    The arm's we make are really quite amazing. Extremely fast, accurate, and articulate. They have a 4-degree of freedom (dof) arm. We also make a 7-dof arm that is absolutely mesmerizing to watch. (Steel aircraft cables are used to drive it).

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    "Mr. President, we cannot allow a mineshaft gap!"