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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
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!
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.
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Microsoft is coming out with a robot that throws chairs.
Table-ized A.I.
Fortunately Shover Robot is there to save him from the terrible secret of space.
Natural? Not in the least.
Asimo doesn't walk like we do. Dexter (this new one) looks like a 10-month-old trying to learn to walk. A robot built to walk in the same vein as Asimo will never be able to walk as easily as a human does. There's way too many variables that would have to be hard coded in (as Asimo's programming is).
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?!
of course, we took major hits at the stockmarket, but hey
I sold short, you insensitive clod!
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
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.
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.
...with those *shoes* the robot's wearing? Can't he at least lace them up?
</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.
The question should be, "Can it run from Linux?"