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First Dynamically Balancing Biped Robot
damg writes "Anybots, which is three guys led by Trevor Blackwell, has developed the first robot that walks like we do, by dynamically balancing itself rather than being pre-programmed for walking like Asimo. The video shows the robot walking and being pushed by another 'bully' robot to demonstrate that it can't easily be pushed over."
I, for one, welcome our new dynamically balancing robot overlords
But can he talk the talk? I didn't think so. Move along, nothing to see here.
Great new book on Evolution: The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins
I want one!!!
Hmm, so, it walks like we do?
Gets out of bed, goes to the fridge, pulls out a soda and pours a coffee, then sits at the computer for 12-20 hours stopping only to walk to the door to receive food deliveries, go to the fridge to get another soda, and to the bathroom to remedy the situation that the previous two types of activities has caused?
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
This is ways more impressive than you'd guess from the video, which doesn't look much different from all the other walking biped robot video (it's less shiny than most). Since this always pops up and always has to be explained:
not dynamically balanced: When the robot (e.g Asimo) moves, it's center of gravity is ALWAYS above the foot it is standing on. As a consequence, the robot could freeze at any moment without falling. Humans can walk that way, but it's slow. dynamically balanced: The center of gravity is not above the foot, basically it's falling forward, the motion cannot be stopped without falling. Much faster to move, much harder to calculate. Anybots managed this, which makes their bots a great achievement. We move this way.memomo: free web based language trainer DE-EN-ES-FR-IT
Time to get some Old Glory Insurance, my friends.
Looks like these robotics enthusiasts had a fair bit of free time on valentines day to put together the video demonstration :)
I figured that out like, 20 years ago! Kids these days are reaching a new low. They can't even figure out how to walk without some dumb robot to teach them!
Does he ask you to stand by the stairs so he can protect you?
That is just you. The rest of us are actually rich and retired (of course, we took major hits at the stockmarket, but hey). So we get up and do the blonde next to us and then have the maid take care of everything. Or is that just my fantasy?
Let's see a robot deal with handing over his lunch money or threats of a wedgie. Then we'll have something!
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
I immediately noticed a striking resemblance between how this robot was learning to walk and how my grandson, now 10 months old, makes regular attempts to also solve this problem for himself.
Way cool.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
What I think the story _should_ point out that is very impressive is:
1) The robot uses pneumatic actuators, which are notoriously difficult to model and control. Almost all of the current dynamically balancing and walking humanoids use electric motors (e.g. ASIMO).
2) Anybots claims to have some "learning" in their controller. Although they don't have any papers about what they are doing, perhaps they are using some clever statistical modeling and feedback to adaptively control and regulate the robot's stability.
BTW, I had a chance to meet Trevor Blackwell a few years ago when he visited my lab. He is definitely a talented engineer with a vision for the future. Several years ago he made Slashdot when he announced his homemade Segway:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/ 28/1756241
From my point of view, any interest by hobbyists and industry in humanoid robotics in North America is great for the field of robotics research.
This is obviously a great advancement with enormous potential. But apart from aesthetics I would have thought four legs more practical than two in many circumstances.
DARPA (the US military research folks who helped bring us the Internet) is currently funding Big Dog which I think is has far more potential, because however you calculate it, a quadruped has to have more stability than a biped. Though, in no way do I wish to detract from the achievements of Dexter.
See Big Dog in action here.
Watching the video, I couldn't help but notice that this lacked arms. It strikes me as rather odd to see this, because arms are one of the key features of human balance, but then again they do make for more variables.
Regardless, this is excellent to see.
Care about privacy? Read this!
This self-balancing robot resembles the Terminator in many ways, except or course, that it can't chase me, and it doesn't have any arms. I suppose that swaying arms might actually improve balancing once it can walk faster with longer steps. Interesting work...
Ahh, the difficulties with extremely simplified simulation of the cerebellum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebellum). This is why I laugh at all the posts that crop up in neuroscience threads about emulating the brain/conscience.
Rather off topic, but do any of you know any good sources for the current developments in neuroscience, brain and cognitive sciences, and other related fields? I studied this in school (graduated in May) and am shifting to a new field, but would really like to keep abreast of everything.
Asimo has much smoother and natural walking motion no?
I want to see that segway-footed bully bot push an asimo around, preferably down some stairs.
The article claims that this is different from ASIMO in that it is unprogrammed. Perhaps this means that the feedback from the gyro is used more directly?
s -selling-solar.html
In any case, this certainly looks like my friend getting over hip replacement surgery. I wonder if one application would be in working out better models of physical therepy. Give the robot the same change in leg length and muscle weakness, see how it compensates, then have the patient imitate. The recovery buddy?
Walk with Sun Dexter! http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Microsoft is coming out with a robot that throws chairs.
Table-ized A.I.
Yay. An Iraq war reference. Slashdot never fails. Not every topic of conversation has to lead to talking about disabled war veterans. Or maybe it does.
Fortunately Shover Robot is there to save him from the terrible secret of space.
Not sure why I thought of this and I have no experience with dynamically balanced robots...but...
If the gyroscope and such balancing mechanisms are so incredibly sensitive, perhaps it's possible for the sensors to get overloaded from very fast movement and the robot would lose his balance. In essence, he would get dizzy.
At this stage, I doubt you could call the robot falling in the video getting dizzy...but still, it's food for thought.
I like that they seem to have built a whole other robot for the sole purpose of pushing the walker robot.
Though I suppose it's necessary to protect these new inventions from the terrible secret of space.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
reminds me of a young forrest gump for some odd reason.
But can it run Linux?
I just read Slashdot for the articles.
The MIT Leg Lab has been doing this since the early 80s.
Kuffner (above) is right, of course. Dynamically stabilized walking has been around for years. It's not easy to do, but it's been done. Raibert first did it in the 1980s. See his book, "Legged Robots that Balance".
Most of the self-balancing walkers, as Kuffner points out, use a ZMP-based approach. This works for walking, although it's not quite enough for effective running.
Many of the dynamically balanced robots can rebalance after a shove. BDI's Big Dog can. So can some Japanese hobbyist robots.
If you're not up to date on how far along Japanese hobbyist robotics has progressed, see these videos of this month's humanoid robot soccer match. These robots are mostly manually controlled, but have computers managing some functions. Many have rate gyros to assist with balance. Gradually, the computers and sensors are taking over more of the control. The hobby robotics manufacturers in Japan now have about 70% of the functionality of Asimo at 2% of the price. There are hobbyist robots with WiFi links and cameras on board. A few more improvements and you'll be able to do all the Asimo stuff with a $1500 robot. But it will only be about 60cm high.
Except for all the other first walking robots that came before it. Oops.
Check out this video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y6MUXv9wEcI
It's an MIT robot doing something more than the white-boy shuffle in a lab. It's running across a grass lawn at a pretty good speed.
This shuffle-bot looks like it'd make me a nice cup holder, and that's about it.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Isn't dynamically balancing easier to do with arms? Not to mention, they allow you to move faster and they can catch you if you fall.
I'd bet it would not be too difficult, certainly not easy but compared to their work to this point it'd be trivial, to add some arms and significantly improve the robot's ability to walk... perhaps even jump and/or run... they could even have it catch itself if it falls.
Sometimes the best solution is to stop wasting time looking for an easy solution.
Where's the bread?? What will it push down throats if not bread?
a nscript-space.php
Ok, I'm sure there's someone out there who hasn't seen it yet...
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/icq-pranks/icq-tr
pak chooie unf
..but we at ./ are more concered with: can it run on Linux?
...with those *shoes* the robot's wearing? Can't he at least lace them up?
It looks more like a Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth style shuffle than a true walk. It would probably be much cooler if it had on a pair of slippers, though.
Hey, guys. Big gulps, huh? Cool. All right! Well, see ya later.
</ObFarkism>
Despite my best efforts, I cant help but apply human characteristics to Dexter the robot. I notice he (dammit! it..) has a rather ugly face, thus i'm naturally repelled by it. Stupid human brain, this is a wonderful demonstration of advanced robotics! Appreciate it! Its interesting though, logic telling me this is quite interesting, unconscious judgment saying ewww. Anyone else think along the same lines?
There's been several comments related to pusher/shover robots, the terrible secret of space, and "pak chooie unf". For those who don't know what these refer to, see the ICQ prank that started it and the flash animation/song inspired by it.
after reading the summary, I was expecting it to be pushed while it was walking. Instead it was standing around like a little punk while the other robot was trying to pick a fight or something.. "Yeah, biatch. What you gonna do about it, huh? Huh?" Pretty cool video, though.
I can walk AND chew gum at the same time. Forward the human hegemony!
Mr. Blackwell couldn't be reached for comment. A source close to him mentioned he was meeting with KITECH's creator of EveR-1, Baeg Moon-hong in San Marcos, CA with Abyss Creations, manufacturers of the Real Doll. While dumpster diving in Mr. Blackwell's refuse, multiple pages were found about a secret project code-named: C.H.E.R.R.Y.2000.
They're using their grammar skills there.
having untied shoes on his feet would mean they would flap around making it harder for him to walk properly.
Glad to finally see a robot with a bit of spine and standing up to bullies. I wish I had such a (role) model when I was a wee lad.
That would be flying...
Because it looks like it's drunk!
(hey, at least I didn't say "does it run Linux?" or "imagine a Beoulf cluster of those" and neither "In Soviet Russia, biped robots balance you!")
So say we all
... that's Michael Jackson in a rehabilitation center
It looks disturbingly like a terminator prototype... a few more years of research and this thing will probably have guns for arms, and be blasting away at insurgents for us.
stuff |
This can only go two ways: Either we wind up with death matches, or robots with psychological problems.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
From the looks of that vid, one quick roundhouse kick would put that robot's face in the sand.
He'll I'd hate to see what Jack Bauer could do to it!
Can he find Sarah Connor?
Defining Statistics and Social Research
http://imdb.com/title/tt0079285/
Can it Moonwalk? Our robots are still decades behind us in fad-dancing technology.
(hey, at least I didn't say...
that was a thinly veiled attempt to actually say those three tired and repetitive jokes. Bad Nerd. Bad bad nerd, you ought to be punished.
That robot reminds me, to a somewhat alarming extent, of Hector in Saturn 3.
Its not realy the first altough probaply the best currently.
I've seen a 2 feet biped robot with face made of a bucket a year ago walking on 2 feets with dynamic stablity.
It was some kind of Dutch robot, at the same time there where some Americans also in this project and made their own biped. If i remind it well the Dutch was a more adeptive free walker, it was larger too but quite thin also.
It was strange to see then, as it is now
I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change.
Proof. Conspiracies. Lies. Chicanery.
You need help.
See their website at http://mms.tudelft.nl/dbl/research/biped/
To repeat what others have said, requires education, to challenge it , requires brains.
The robot can chew gum, but not at the same time.
Should nickname him Magical Trevor, 'cause the tricks he does are ever so clever.
Carbon based humanoid in training.
I, for one, welcome our new robot bully overlords.