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Wii Hacked To Control Sword-Wielding Robot
ianchaos writes "WiiBot is the pet project of two engineers who apparently have way too much cool hardware and time on their hands. These two guys figure that as long as you have a Kuka KR16 industrial robot to work with, why not see if you can control it with the Wii Remote? The result is a tennis-playing, sword-wielding mechanical arm that simultaneously captures 'weekend of nerdy fun' and 'accident waiting to happen' in a fun two minute video. The website even details the technical aspects of teaching a robot to parry."
I for one welcome our wii-capable overlords. ...first post ever, gimme a break right?
An accident already happened, in the server room. Service Unavailable
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Its all fun and games until they become possessed by the angry ghost of R.O.B.
Murder by remote controlled robot, the perfect crime?
Philosophy.
Loved the discussion of how the bot can easily decapitate.
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."
I fear the military applications of this...not like it wasn't possible before, but perhaps this might give some people ideas that would ultimately be used to kill people.
http://chrono.posterous.com/
The robot arm, in the server room, with the sword.
Now that we can play tennis by remote control I think we should introduce the system for the 2008 Australian open. These people play under conditions when most people in this city are sitting under the aircon vents in office buildings and homes, debating wether or not to venture outside for a swim.
In the interests of fewer baked and dehydrated tennis players I think we should approve teleoperation (unless the roof is closed).
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Don't like the software -it sucks that you have to finish a motion before the robot even begins that motion. It probably took a thousand takes before they managed to hit a tennis ball with the thing.
Hey, if they had money, the robot wouldn't have been orange, it would have been hummer yellow.
I have freaks! I did something right...
The problem here is not too much cool hardware. That's never a problem. The problem is not enough sharing.
This could be great for amateur robotics. Instead of painstakingly programming the subtle nuances of motion into a robotic arm/leg/whatever, perform the movement via WiiMote and record the motion. Although I'm sure people have been using similar methods for ages, using a Wii only requires an investment of 250 USD. Plus tax. Plus Zelda (purely for scientific purposes).
I have absolutely no idea what sort of data has to be pushed via serial to the robot, but it seems like the natural next step would be software that translated the tuple of accelerations per axis from the wiimotes accelerometers into the appropriate serial data. This may, of course, be impossible with this robot, and you may only be able to specify a path to follow, after which the robot returns to its original position. However, if you can give the robot commands to move a certain direction relative to its current position, it seems like this would be possible. Depending on the sampling interval from the wiimote, it seems like more natural motion. To address the need/desire to stop the software from listening and the need/desire to have the robot, at some point, return to a standard position, button input could be used (i.e. A starts and stops the software from listening to the wiimote input, B tells the robot to reset to it's default position.
Again, none of this may be possible with this robot, but that would be a much more interesting hack. It might actually allow you to hit a ball that's already been thrown (and decapitate someone in real time).
-Lee
After a fun day of playing "Swordsman" with the robot they accidentally hand it the Wii remote... The police find their decapitated bodies two days later and a cold oil trail leading out of the building. In the distance a faint voice is heard, "Hello. My designation is Inigo Montoya. You reprogrammed my previous model; prepare to die."
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Pay attention when there's 41 seconds to go. The guy is holding his arm up and the robot beats him to bringing it back down. The robot's arm is practically all the way down before he springs into action and brings his arm down. Looks fake as hell to me.
The sword/Wii hack is neat, but after looking up the Kuka KR16 on the Kuka website, and looking around, I'd rather have this than a fencing arm.
Soon, we can pornsurf with *both* hands.
HDDs that shut-down while falling to the ground, remotes that can be used to handle a sword, play tennis, and boxe your opponent to KO... what else?!
"Sum Ergo Cogito"
...if you give the remote to the robot?
comma
They should get together with these guys and start charging:
9 7006303244
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-74725021
Could someone please make Windows go away?
It hurts my head.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
This would be way more effective IMHO
Or what? You'll release the dogs? Or the bees? Or the dogs with bees in their mouth and when they bark they shoot bees at you?
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Actually, if you REALLY paid attention, you'd notice that regardless of whatever movements are being made, the robot arm always returns to a default position once the wiimote is no longer registering motion. After every single demonstrated swoop, the robot arm returns to the *exact* same position before they next demonstrated swoop.
Orange is the new hummer yellow.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
My name is Inigo Roboto. You degaussed my father. Prepare to die.
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
The wiimote is a bluetooth device and there are lots of people working on driver software for various operating systems.
You can start at wiili.
Investment cost is about £40 for the mote plus about £10 for the bluetooth dongle.
liqbase
I fear the military applications of this...not like it wasn't possible before, but perhaps this might give some people ideas that would ultimately be used to kill people.
/.-meme inducing virulence of this comment. Think about it--"I fear the military applications of this..." is the new obligatory "I, for one, welcome our new $ACTION overlords." And it can apply to virtually any slashdot story.
I fear the
Example:
SCIENCE: MATERIAL TOUGHER THAN DIAMOND DEVELOPED
Obligatory...
I, for one, fear the military applications of this, not like it wasn't possible before, but perhaps this might give some people ideas that would ultimately be used to kill people.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
It doesn't look fake, but it does look like they are simply using pre-recorded motions, just like almost all Wii games out there. So instead of the robot mirroring your motion, you have to to mirror a predefined motion to trigger a prerecorded motion in the robot. Looks cool, but it is pretty much useless for actually controlling the robot, since its really no different then pressing the "cool sword swing motion"-button.
The Wiimote can't give you accurate position data, so thats pretty much all you ever get.
In my graduate studies (computer science Texas A&M U @ Commerce,TX) I have been working on a mini robotic submarine that uses accelerometers to calculate acceleration (of course), speed, and location. We also have a similar arm that was donated to the Physics department but I have not had a chance to play with it yet.
;)
Anyways, my question is why use wii controllers? You could order a dozen accelerometers from DigiKey for far far less than the price of the wii controller, assuming you can purchase them without buying a complete wii system. Not only would it be cheaper but you could place the accelerometers on your arm, hand, shoulder, etc in locations that most mimic the articulating parts of the actual robotic arm.
Only thing I can guess is that by using the wii controller, and it being so new, that you get that whole 3lit3 haxor effect because wii and it's use of accelerometers is new for game controllers. Looks like it worked, getting their site slashdotted and all.
On a side note I did use a wireless xbox (not 360) controller to control the mini robotic submarine. Did you know that those controllers are USB, Microsoft just used a non standard port? It was my intention to have events in the sub send data back that would control the force feedback in the controller but I have not been able to figure out how to send data to the gamepad to activate that function. If anyone has suggestions please let me know (sshscp@gmail.com). I am using the XBCD driver on a windows XP laptop running a program written in G (Labview 8.2.0).
With this stuff you have to watch what you call things. If something is completely remote controlled then you can't technically call it a robot. At minimum a robot has to be able to act autonomously or perform pre-programed tasks. Currently the sub has a pre-programed task - when battery levels reach a preset point control ballasts and pumps to quickly return to the surface and then go into power consumption mode. It sounds like this arm is a robot since the controller activates a series of pre-programmed movements. But, if it were completely controlled by the accelerometers then it would be a remote controlled arm and not a robot.
Future plans for the sub are to include autonomous mapping of it's environment. As for the arm I was thinking of working on it so that it could play chess, possibly against live opponents over the web (with a webcam). Do you think people would want to play it?
Anyways good job on the arm guys! I can't get enough of these micro controller applications. I got the bug quick after having code that I wrote actually do something in the real world for the first time. Maybe I'll get something slashdotted someday
Nick Powers
Encryption: I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to encrypt it...
Sword impales 42" LCD HDTV, public demands stronger wrist straps.
I just read Slashdot for the articles.
"Already saw it a week ago on Engadget."
That's really fascinating. BTW, have you ever looked into how Slashdot gets its stories? I'll give you a hint, they don't have any reporters.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
It could just as easily been done with a keyboard.
S - perform Serve
F - forward swing
B - backhand swing
The are not really using the wiiMote to change the robot position.
Sony President Ken Kutaragi mauled to death by Wii-controlled Aibo
If this robot had been controlled via a similar custom built device would it have been less impressive? Would not have made Slashdot!
I suppose they will put up anything on slashdot if you use your Wii to control it.
Use a Wii to control your household pets, that would be impressive!
Offtopic, huh? Some moderators have no sense of humour at all. :-)
For those moderators that didn't get the intent of the joke, the story is about a sword-wielding robot. So imagine said sword-wielding robot playing the role of the Black Knight in Monty Python's Holy Grail...
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
The Wiimote can't give you accurate position data, so thats pretty much all you ever get.
No, but the Wiimote can give you amazingly accurate ORIENTATION data, which is all you really need for this sort of application. I think the problem here is that these industrial robots aren't designed for real-time control, hence the "mimic" type actions.
Believe me, the Wiimote can very accurately, in real time, determine exactly which way it it pointing. It's a lot more complicated than "pressing a sword swing button". Just because Zelda was a Gamecube port, and therefore unable to really take advantage of the Wiimote, does not mean the controller is actually that limited in function.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
1. Get an industrial robot 2. Dance around it with the Wii Remote 3. ???? 4. Profit!
Cinépatas.com - Locos por el CINE
The Wiimote gives you two kinds of data, the coordinates of the IR LEDs of the sensorbar in 2D, which used for pointing, the x,y,z accelerations. It actually doesn't give you exact orientation, you have to derive that from the accelerations, which only works as long as you don't move it, else acceleration and gravity will overlap and you will have a hard time telling which is gravity and which is movement of the Wiimote. Also the orientation you get that way is limited to X and Y axis only, the Wiimote can't detect rotation around the Z axis via the accelerometers, however to a limit extent it might be possible to get it from the sensorbar.
To make it short: I believe it when I see it. So far most Wii games used prerecorded motion, aka glorified button presses. Some games, such as Wii Sports, also take the speed into account, but those only work because the motion itself is very limited. Real 1:1 mapping just doesn't work with the sensor in the Wiimote, you can however of course get a lot closer to it then Zelda, which really was just lame in terms of input.
Mouse gestures FTW! Welcome to "Next Gen"!
we're all nerds, we've all seen the movie, but you just copy-pasted the skit and changed two words. you're going to have to do better than that
Are we sure this isn't a Nintendo flog?
-Rich
In Soviet Russia, robot arm controls you!
Is it just me or was this kinda underwhelming? I was picturing the robot arm reacting in realtime to each motion. Instead they were using gestures to trigger scripted movements. I guess it's still cool..but not as cool as I imagined.
General Grievous anyone?
i am a meat machine
And by 'a hard time' we mean 'if you can do it you'll overturn general relativity and win a Nobel prize'.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Sword wielding robots? What next, guns? Has no-one seen Terminator?!?!