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Fighting Android Sparring Partner
GeneOff writes "Just in time for Christmas, comes FA1, the fighting android from SDT (Self Defence Technologys.) I loved my Rock-Em, Sock-Em robots I got one year from Santa. But it was tough getting opponents. Well, no more. Here is a hackable real robot that won't whimp out on you." From the article: "... a robot that can jab, hook, and cross, but still keep the violence to a minimum with adjustable difficulty levels. The FA1 can also dodge your punches with "human-like" movements and he should be hanging out on the show floor at CES -- so we'll be sure to challenge him to a round of verbal barbs from a distance."
Posted by Zonk on Sunday January 01, @03:24AM
Just in time for Christmas? This may be one of the few times where it would actually be appropriate for the article to be a dupe.
That's right, I read at +2 and post at +1. Not even I care what I have to say.
Till we see it in arcades? In Japan anyway, since Arcades are dead here in the states, but still :).
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Doesn't this kinda violate Asimov's first law of robotics?
c s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Roboti
As of 10/06/03, I hate COBOL developers.
The groin kick feature may limit sales.
I want mine with a Chuck Norris personality chip...
Just in time for Christmas, comes FA1, the fighting android from SDT (Self Defence Technologys.) The FA1 can also dodge your punches with "human-like" movements
That's great, but can it find Sarah Connor?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Dang! Something's got to be done about the length of the submission queue at Slashdot!
A fighting robot, eh? This reminds me of the old Twilight Zone episode "Steel" (with Lee Marvin).
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
There is a few reasons why I doubt the usefulness of this robot.
1) To develop an "android" with "human-like" combative movements is unlikely at this point in time. The Actroid shown in the videos here is quite advanced in mimicing human motions, but the movements are very jerky and the motor control is very obvious.
2) The previous point leads to another problem. Training with a mechnical dummy is detrimental to gaining actual combat experience. The "android" will , no doubt, move in a series of jerky movements predefined by state machines. A human fighter flows from one move to another. The android can't help replicate real combat unless it has physics and advanced algorithms programmed into it. Also, the android shown in the picture seems to be stationary. Boxing and martial arts is very dynamic, so the android serves more like a game than a serious combat trainer.
3) The article claims that the android can dodge punches. I say that it can't. It takes a fist less than a quarter of a second to travel from the ready position to the opponent's face. The microprocessor needs to do image processing to realize that the fist is moving towards a specific area, which will require many image frames before it can actually determine the fist movements. And even if the microprocessor was able to act fast enough, I haven't seen any motors that can rotate fast enough.
4) Cost. A stepping side-kick has tremedous amount of force. If a kick can knock a human 10 feet back, I doubt that the android can sustain its working condition after numerous attacks. When it breaks down, how much would it cost to get it serviced?
What is this, a joke or something? No videos of the 'android'. Just two dopey pictures. You go to the website (http://sdtandroids.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabind ex=2&tabid=2) and here are the specifications of their product:
Specifications
Height:
Weight:
Power Supply:
Materials:
My apologies if I'm missing something, but this looks like more of a proposal than a viable product.
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
"3) The article claims that the android can dodge punches. I say that it can't. It takes a fist less than a quarter of a second to travel from the ready position to the opponent's face. The microprocessor needs to do image processing to realize that the fist is moving towards a specific area, which will require many image frames before it can actually determine the fist movements. And even if the microprocessor was able to act fast enough, I haven't seen any motors that can rotate fast enough."
-Image processing
Who says it has to do image processing? Trying to emulate the human visual system is inefficient in a robot that only has to know what's moving towards it. Sonar would do fine for dodging, and the processing would provide some information about which way to move almost instantly.
-Motors
Human muscles also don't move quickly enough to dodge a quarter-second punch. You sound like you've athletic, so surely you know that in tennis, volleyball, boxing or any other blocking/hitting sport, simply sticking your arm out in the direction you want it to go is too slow. Most of the movement is achieved by shifting weight. You don't want your arm way out with a tennis racket when you have to make a final adjustment of its position. You want it tight to the body where you have better leverage.
A robot that dodges to the side by first releasing a solenoid that has been holding one leg straight and the activating a solenoid that flexes that leg will move much faster than any motor could turn its limbs. It will also move much more like a human would.
There are demonstrably machines which react to an input by moving a large mass in under a quarter of a second. They may need to be counterweighted, but the humanoid frame is already admirably counterweighted. As long as this robot is well-designed there should be no reason at all that it can't move fifteen centimetres to the side in under a quarter second and dodge one punch. Whether it could dodge a series of punches is another matter, but then it's another matter for people too.
So if you put lots of them in a room, which one will win the battle royale? They are technically identical!
in person or over a network?
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