Humanoid Robot KHR-1 SDK Released
ls129 writes "KHR-1, the Japanese Robo-One humanoid robot kit from Kondo (previously mentioned here), is finally open for creative software development. The first unofficial implementation of the PC-controller API has just been posted. Using the SDK, the 17 servos that give the robot its mobility can be remote controlled by the PC via WiFi or bluetooth, and their current position can be retrieved several times per second. This unique feature will allow robot fans to go beyond simple performance of motion sequences or low-level gyro-based motion correction and develop algorithms that involve feedback control and AI." Update: 04/05 16:59 GMT by T : As originally posted, I erroneously changed the robot's nationality from Japanese to Korean; that was a boo-boo; the linked site with an English translation is Korean, but the robot itself is Japanese. Apologies to the submitter, who had it right.
Stand by for 300 "I for one welcome our new robot overlords" comments, 250 comments about terminator, 4 "Robot, Kill Flanders!" and 3 "FIRST POST".
Thank you. This was just a drill. You may now resume to your regular work.
Underholdning.info
So as to avoid missing FP by a split second?
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
Dammit, I got all excited for nothing. Wake me up when somebody actually starts a Chobits line of robots.
"can be remote controlled by the PC via WiFi or bluetooth"
So can this feature be combined with a previously posted Slashdot story? Can users use bluetooth to make the robot approach a nice young woman in a train station and ask if they're "Toothing?"
Sugapablo
But is it tall enough to meet Korea's pressing need for a mecha to finally stop those frequent Yongary attacks?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
yeah, but can it do the robot?
Forget WiFi, you could have quite a bit of fun with something like this over a WiMAX connection..
;)
I know I would enjoy sending my robot out around town with a video camera and two way voice communications allowing me to talk through it to people and respond and everything
North Korea built a humanoid automaton last year. Seen here, it is somewhat more lifelike than the South Korean effort.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
_O_
.|< The named which can be named is not the true named
I want to replace the PC with a small embedded device with a couple of CCDs for stereo vison. My robot would kick your robots ass:)
Is this going to produce AI as in "I am bender, please insert girder"? Or as in, "Maybe the blue fairy will make me into a real boy so my mommy will love me". I eagerly await the former, and I dread the latter, since it will take us two seconds to pervert it into "Im gigolo Joe, Waddaya know?" Artificial intelligence for menial tasks is great. Artifical humanity will be perverted so fast it will make your head spin.
"Sic Semper Path of Least Resistance"
Do my eyes deceive or did I just read that the unique wireless control mechanisms of this robot will allow developers to implement AI? If that's all we needed, we've been focusing on the wrong areas!
i just want to play go
I submitted a news story about Natalie Portman inventing a platoon of robot workers that looked like giant ants to cook her breakfast, but for some reason no-one was interested.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
"Servo" - as in 17 servos, used in the article - is short for Servomechanism. Remote actuation. Service, on the other hand... and you can bet that they've already thought of more than 17 ways to use it. I have, and I haven't even had coffee.
Browsing with +2 to insightful posts and a higher threshold makes the average post seen seem a lot more ingenious
Does anyone know if this is orderable/importable/for sale generally in the US? Both sites are craawling to a halt today and I REALLY want one. Course I haven't seen the price yet...
Anyone else think of the Quasar robot?
http://request-header.info
...but if I stick a magnet on it's head does it want to become Folk singer?
Ubiquitously - A Ubiquity Developer Community
"You can be writing a comment if you be sign-in."
Robotics they can do. Engrish is just a bonus, while you're waiting for the robot pictures to download ..
It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.
I'll define it:
If you do something I don't do, you are perverted.
If you do something I do, you are normal.
Since most people measure themselves with their own yardstick, most people are normal.
It's the rest of the world that's sick.
There is not nearly enough love in the world, but there is far too much trust.
I wonder this about the current crop of fly-by-wire, computer controlled, r/c products...for this, and the pico board for the piccolo helicopter.
Are these things scalable? Can I use the same electronics with larger, more powerful servos? And, if not, how far do I have to deconstruct the things to get to the core logic.
See, the way I figure it this could be a way to build an ALIENS-style loader, or a Gundam...or in the case of the picoboard maybe some kind of helicopter.
Just an idea.
If this could be successfully . . err . . ."mated" with that real doll technology.
I for one welcome our sexy robot overlords (yeah yeah it had to be said).
Look out honey cause I'm usin' technology
Ain't got time to make no apologies
Bezerk. Early 80s
try to google : feedback control robot
for example:3 .htm
m
http://mundobot.com/projects/melanie/v3/enmelanie
http://www.ynl.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~fabio/bipedloc.ht
Sony Quorio, Honda Asimo etc.
Get your Unix fortune now!
The news has recently been announced -- just in time for the emergence of AI-ready robots -- that the sideways integration of sensory input with a conceptual mindgrid is the solution to artificial intelligence.
The solution to AI qua problem -- qua grand challenge to humanity -- exists at first in theory only.
The Association for Computing Machinery has reported in ACM Sigplan Notices 33(12):25-31 (1998) and in ACM Sigplan Notices 39(12):11-16 (2004) on progress in implementing the AI solution as open-source AI software evolving into Mind.Forth for robots. There is an implicit contest involved here of who can keep the date-stamped robot AI Mind running the longest, as if for the Guiness Book of World Records. Since Mentifex AI is in the public domain, programmers are free to customize special AI Minds in any programming language and to offer their artificial intelligence for sale on eBay in the Computers and Networking software marketplace.
Please do not point to the primitive Mentifex software as proof that the claim of an AI solution is false. The only claim made here is that AI has been solved in theory, not yet (please stand by) successfully implemented in software or hardware. The Artificial General Intelligence Research Institute (AGIRI) is creating powerful Novamente software but is handicapped for lack of funding and for disregard of the Mentifex AI theory. Mentifex has a secret plan to locate funding for AGIRI if the AGI team either hires Mentifex or agrees to implement the Theory of Cognitivity.
The 17 servos in this robot use a LOT of battery. Add a wireless card to that and the joy of *using* this robot will only last a few minutes. Especially if that battery has to also power the remote video link. Its not big enough to carry lots of batteries. The act of remotely controlling a robot is not new, nor is it proprietary. There are dozens of servo controllers on the market that can be controlled using simple serial commands. The clever home robotics hobbyist can buy all they need to replicate this robot in the good old US of A. There are some that are building their own. http://www.sorobotics.org/dgates/samm.html It may be cute, or cool to watch, but the gizmos inside it are ordinary, and can be replicated almost anywhere. There is nothing to get excited about until robots are doing something useful for mankind in general. For example: yard work, harvesting crops, mining on other planets etc.
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
When I saw this I'd just finished reading an article in Science (18 Feb 05) entitled (subscription required). Contrary to the "mainstream" approach of actuating every joint with a complex control system, the authors describe three robots that achieve very natural human-like gaits using far fewer actuators and much simpler control principles (one of them using adaptive learning). Not only are these robots far simpler to control, but they typically require only about a tenth of the energy of designs that attempt to actuate every joint (e.g., knees). I'll speculate that this passive/dynamic approach is going to dominate in the future.
#070 in the contest is the ancestor of the killer robot Max from the Black Hole.
VINCENT and "Bob"'s days are numbered!
Did you notice the TV screengrab in the bottom left corner on the page about the robot itself? The P-n-P next to the woman looks very much like the HKR-1 holding a long gun to someone's head. Sounds like they're already here!
Please help metamoderate.
Use GTypist.
yuo == fagotser
What'd he do to deserve that? Or was it just a layoff because his robot duties were outsourced to India? :-)
Unmodified hobby servos do not expose the position data without cracking them open and reading the internal pot. Looking at the API, I'm guessing it's simply remembering the last positions you told it to move to and regurgitating them.
I'm working on a project that sort of does what this is claiming to do by providing this feedback by way of current sensing.
http://satiety.com/robot
The last time I saw a KHR-1 they looked like walking chrome toasters!
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
It should be noted that this is a closed, binary, Windows-only dll, which may even damage your $1500 robot. I don't want to sound zealous, but no serious robotist should be using Windows. Wake me when anyone can compile it under Linux.
...
This is a library for controlling the KHR-1 RCB boards using the serial link from a PC under Windows.
Use this library at your own risk. There is no guarantee this software would work at all in your system or your robot. Your robot might be damaged.
Have you read Penrose's book, The Emporer's New Mind? Its about whether a machine can ever achieve consciousness. [Spoiler: No] I don't agree with Penrose, but I also don't have the tools to argue with him. He makes a tough case.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
someone told me timothy is getting fired soon