Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Six-legged Robot Teaches Itself To Walk

Posted by samzenpus on from the machine's-first-steps dept.

rabiddeity writes "An undergraduate at the University of Arizona has built a six legged robot from scratch. The robot, which is equipped with sensors on each foot, teaches itself to walk and orients itself via an onboard camera. A similar design might be used to explore unstable environments such as collapsed buildings or rocky landscapes."

113 comments

  1. Timing of articles by suso · · Score: 5, Funny

    So it looks like we only had to wait a few hours for AI to surpass the abilities of a drunken man. Can't wait until tomorrow morning.

    1. Re:Timing of articles by cupantae · · Score: 5, Funny

      Exactly. We can't wait. *pumps shotgun*

      --
      --
    2. Re:Timing of articles by cryoman23 · · Score: 0

      but i was saving my ammo for the zombies... o well i guess its for a good cause...

      --
      epic sig..... ya i got nothing
    3. Re:Timing of articles by ScrewMaster · · Score: 1

      Exactly. We can't wait. *pumps shotgun*

      You're going to need a bigger gun.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    4. Re:Timing of articles by siloko · · Score: 1

      Especially given that one is programmed NOT to fire on it's own kind - if it ain't pointed at flesh it just fires blanks!

    5. Re:Timing of articles by Psaakyrn · · Score: 1

      Haven't history taught you that violence begets violence?

    6. Re:Timing of articles by jhoegl · · Score: 1

      Only if it begets me the winner.

    7. Re:Timing of articles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're going to need a bigger pun.

    8. Re:Timing of articles by Gerzel · · Score: 2, Funny

      Not true the AI has not surpassed the abilities of a drunken man as the drunk is doing it with considerably fewer legs, usually 2 to 4, 5 if they are lucky.

    9. Re:Timing of articles by Nazlfrag · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but history also taught me that noone listens to history or really pays much attention to now for that matter.

    10. Re:Timing of articles by PiSkyHi · · Score: 1

      Hey mod pointers! mod systems just don't work with subtle humour, I guess by definition.

    11. Re:Timing of articles by c6gunner · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Haven't history taught you that violence begets violence?

      North and South America serve as a shining beacon of disagreement with that claim.

    12. Re:Timing of articles by vegiVamp · · Score: 1

      Trouble is, peace also begets you violence, with that difference that you aren't equipped to respond to it.

      --
      What a depressingly stupid machine.
    13. Re:Timing of articles by mcvos · · Score: 1

      Haven't history taught you that violence begets violence?

      Hollywood taught me that shotguns work very well against robotic spider infestations.

    14. Re:Timing of articles by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Doom taught me that plasma weapons are the best tools for the job.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    15. Re:Timing of articles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...and that non violence begets violence anyway. with only one notable example and dozens of martyrs.

    16. Re:Timing of articles by Red+Flayer · · Score: 1

      Hollywood schmollywood.

      Your geeksense should tell you that EMP weapons are superior for fighting robotic opponents.

      Besides, these are not robotic spiders. Spiders have six legs, these only have six. For now, these are robotic ants.

      Let us hope they do not teach themselves how to accumulate armor and learn to fly, lest they become robotic beetles.

      At any rate, we should prepare ourselves for the possibility they become robotic fleas by learning to leap.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    17. Re:Timing of articles by Thing+1 · · Score: 2

      Spiders have six legs, these only have six.

      Uh huh. Tell us more. Like how to subscribe to your newsletter.

      --
      I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
    18. Re:Timing of articles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      His newsletter comes out once a month instead of 12 times a year.

  2. This is kinda funny by ekimd · · Score: 1

    given the AI article just a few stories down.

    --
    'Impossible' is a word that humans use far too often. -- Seven of Nine
    1. Re:This is kinda funny by cryoman23 · · Score: 0

      no not funny... this is the begging of the end.. first this then they'll learn to walk on 4 or 2 legs... learn to talk... learn to "help" us humans... then when we least expect it'll upload its AI into the Internet and take over the world... be afraid be very afraid...

      --
      epic sig..... ya i got nothing
    2. Re:This is kinda funny by Cassius+Corodes · · Score: 1

      Eh, this pessimism joke has been done to death - I propose that robot articles are now accompanied by jokes that are overly optimistic.

      --
      Control is an illusion, order our comforting lie. From chaos, through chaos, into chaos we fly
    3. Re:This is kinda funny by cryoman23 · · Score: 1, Funny

      YAY the world is coming to an end... Robots have taken over. this is the Best thing EVER!!! (optimistic enough?)

      --
      epic sig..... ya i got nothing
    4. Re:This is kinda funny by Cassius+Corodes · · Score: 1

      Needs more cowbell.

      --
      Control is an illusion, order our comforting lie. From chaos, through chaos, into chaos we fly
    5. Re:This is kinda funny by KC7JHO · · Score: 1

      YAY the world is coming to an end... Robots have taken over. this is the Best thing EVER!!!.

      *Dink dink dinK, ... CLANG*

  3. When will they learn to dance? by bipbop · · Score: 4, Funny

    These six-legged robots can dance! Hexapod: Best of Dance 2009

    Yeah, this in no way lessens the accomplishment of a robot actually learning to walk, but I figured it was half on-topic, half cool-as-hell so I'd post it :-)

    1. Re:When will they learn to dance? by pengin9 · · Score: 0

      Is this turning anyone else on?

    2. Re:When will they learn to dance? by negRo_slim · · Score: 1

      Yeah, this in no way lessens the accomplishment of a robot actually learning to walk, but I figured it was half on-topic, half cool-as-hell so I'd post it :-)

      Yeah I was rather impressed with that myself and was curious to see what he was using for processing, sensors and etc... Apparently it was an Atom, maybe TFA said that but I'm not down with FOX links.

      http://www.engineering.arizona.edu/news/story.php?id=114

      I would of been much more impressed if he would of done this with something akin to AVR and read about it on Society of Robots instead of FOX but that's neither here nor there...

      --
      On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
    3. Re:When will they learn to dance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everybody knows real robots can't dance.

    4. Re:When will they learn to dance? by catd77 · · Score: 1

      I think robotics have made exponential leaps in recent years. Now, Dean Kamens FIRST competition has high-schoolers making advanced robots. Pretty soon, with innovation like this happening every day, I'm sure there will be robotic "Public Workers" soon enough.

  4. Six legs not too hard by Animats · · Score: 1

    Stumbling around on six legs isn't very hard. Almost any vaguely reasonable leg movement strategy will work. Look at "Stiquito".

    2010 is a little late to be doing a six-legged crawler. They're fun to build, but you don't issue a press release.

    1. Re:Six legs not too hard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently Intel disagrees with you.

    2. Re:Six legs not too hard by iamhassi · · Score: 3, Informative

      "Stumbling around on six legs isn't very hard. "

      That link didn't show what stiquito could do. Here's a video.

      "2010 is a little late to be doing a six-legged crawler. They're fun to build, but you don't issue a press release."

      I think parent is right, seems six-legged robots have been around forever. An electrical engineer senior shouldn't have a problem building one of these without a kit, although it looks like he might have used this kit. Sure the legs look a bit different, but the placement of servos, etc look the exact same, and before someone says "how many different ways can you build a hexapod robot?" there's many different designs

      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    3. Re:Six legs not too hard by Nyeerrmm · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is similar to a stiquito in only the most superficial way -- its a movable machine with 6 legs. In every other way its different.

      Controls: The stiquito has a single (or sometimes two) actuators, that are placed to mechanically, repeatedly cause the same walking motion. This student's robot has 12 actuators, 2 joints on each leg. This makes the robot much more versatile, but also makes the control problem much harder to solve.

      Learning: A stiquito is dumb -- you attach the SMA to the legs, and put a current through to tighten them. It works exactly the same every time, and you have to put it together in just the right way to make it work. This robot is self-learning (or more exactly, learns through reinforcement). The designer simply creates a fairly simple algorithm that has it try motions and see if it gets it to move in the desired direction, and then learns how to do it over time.

      While I think its fair to say anyone with some mechanical aptitude and knowledge of machine learning could put something like this together, its not exactly a simple feat and is certainly impressive for an undergrad. I don't know of any other self-learning six-legged robots (reflecting my ignorance only), but given the capabilities plus the (likely?) low cost its nothing to sneeze at and could have uses in things like disaster operations.

    4. Re:Six legs not too hard by SpinyNorman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      He built it for a cognitive robotics class, so the emphasis was on the software, not the hardware (it uses a webcam and optical flow calculation for movement detection, for feedback into the learning algorithm). The FOX article is a horrible source for this story, but if you Google a bit you can find that he used a 3-D printer to build his own legs for the slick version shown - definitely not a kit!

    5. Re:Six legs not too hard by ZenDragon · · Score: 1

      The configuration of the robot is not the accomplishment here, its the fact that robot can actually learn to walk on its own. As the article mentions; if a leg is damaged, it an re-learn how to walk without that leg. Most if not all hexapod robots would have a lot of trouble moving at all if one leg, or even two, were damaged. Based on what this thing seems to be capable of doing, that would only only probably mean a few minutes of down time before it started moving again. IT wouldnt have to be manually re-programmed to walk again without those legs. This is great for things like interplanetary robots where a single command takes weeks to transmit, when they dont even know if the robot is stuck until it has no way of getting itself out. I dont think the accomplishment is the robot itself but rather the programming that runs it.

  5. Six legs good... by calmofthestorm · · Score: 4, Funny

    Four legs bad.

    --
    93rd rule of Slashdot: No matter how obvious my sarcasm is, my comment will be taken seriously by someone.
    1. Re:Six legs good... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      Four legs bad.

      And two legs?

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    2. Re:Six legs good... by Darkness404 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Whoosh

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    3. Re:Six legs good... by binarylarry · · Score: 1

      Snikt

      --
      Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
    4. Re:Six legs good... by guygo · · Score: 1

      = controlled fall. Keep up!

    5. Re:Six legs good... by DarthBling · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I believe it is a reference to Animal Farm.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm See the section on Animalism.

    6. Re:Six legs good... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      I deserved the woosh then.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    7. Re:Six legs good... by DarthBling · · Score: 1

      I had to look it up too. ;)

    8. Re:Six legs good... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Four legs better!

  6. Eh... by Facegarden · · Score: 2, Informative

    A similar design might be used to explore unstable environments such as collapsed buildings or rocky landscapes.

    No, it won't.

    I made a hexapod with 3DOF per leg that could walk in any direction "from scratch" by myself, in high school, for fun.

    Adding some foot sensors is the obvious next step, and I've heard a lot about learning algorithms for walking robots being used over the years.

    Honestly, I'm only bitter because I made something cooler in college but never bothered to post it online, so no one saw it aside from my classmates. But, it was a battery-powered 4 legged walking robot that ran a micro ITX windows XP pc inside its body, and was controlled through the internet with a remote PC by a wireless Xbox 360 controller.

    It was honestly totally badass.

    Oh, and it could support 20lbs static weight on its standard size hobby servo motors (but they were the $115 ones).

    But more than anything, my point was is wasn't that hard, and that robot wasn't going to be walking through rubble any time soon.

    It *could* have, but it wasn't going to. Neither is this one. People have been building basic hexapods for a long time. We still haven't sent one to the moon.

    -Taylor

    --
    Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
    1. Re:Eh... by JohnFluxx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      For such a long rant, you didn't seem to given any reason why it won't.

    2. Re:Eh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      First: your story sounds like a lie.

      Second: you didn't get the point, that piece of software involves computer vision and A.I. Creating a simple neural network for reading characters of moving images is something not even 1% of computer "geeks" can really do.

    3. Re:Eh... by Facegarden · · Score: 1

      For such a long rant, you didn't seem to given any reason why it won't.

      Well, it was a rant...

      But i dunno, it's just nothing *new*. This is no more likely to be the next moon rover than any of the other hexapods people have built. You can buy kits to build this kind of thing for ~$500, and I've been told that if you study it, the learning to walk algorithm is pretty simple.

      I know a great source for something exactly like this that I saw 10 years ago, but unfortunately his site went down a few years ago. (tappotec.net)

      And I did admit, I'm partially just jealous that these kinds of things get so much attention, because I was always too lazy to do a real write-up for mine.
      -Taylor

      --
      Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
    4. Re:Eh... by JohnFluxx · · Score: 1

      I'm sure that wheeled robots were around for a long long time before one was sent to Mars or the Moon. So just existing for ages without being used doesn't mean much

  7. This is news? by Verteiron · · Score: 1

    I distinctly remember reading an article in Discover magazine about six-legged "insectoid" bots that taught themselves to walk... nearly 15 years ago.

    --
    End of lesson. You may press the button.
    1. Re:This is news? by Meshach · · Score: 2, Interesting
      The summary does not do the article justice. This is the first line from the actual article:

      Picture a spider-like robot that teaches itself to walk, can adapt when damaged and watches its maker as he moves around the room. That might sound terrifying.

      The exciting thing is that the robot could compensate when part of itself was damaged and get around/over obstacles

      --
      "Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
      Aldous Huxley
    2. Re:This is news? by Facegarden · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The summary does not do the article justice. This is the first line from the actual article:

      Picture a spider-like robot that teaches itself to walk, can adapt when damaged and watches its maker as he moves around the room. That might sound terrifying.

      The exciting thing is that the robot could compensate when part of itself was damaged and get around/over obstacles

      Actually, that's part of the learning algorithms that have been around for a long time. Since it can teach itself to walk, it can re-teach itself with broken appendages.
      -Taylor

      --
      Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
    3. Re:This is news? by GReaToaK_2000 · · Score: 1

      I agree with Verteiron. This is NOT news. MIT has been doing work in this field since I was in high school in the mid to late 80's.

      When I graduated in 89, MIT Robotics Group had already created a six legged robot that could learn to walk through a distributed reward based algorithm. I believe the robot was called attila.

      Then in the early 90's they produced a couple new "generations" of these robots that could follow objects, seek shelter under chairs based on the shade (shadow) provided by the chair or table.

      I don't see what the big deal is with this.

      Typical Fox Noise and their pathetic journalists. At least they are reporting something cool, albeit late.

    4. Re:This is news? by Qlither · · Score: 0

      Yeah as far as i know this has been down for years now too. I dont understand why it is now considered news.

      A quick youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68AR5WOUxeg&feature=related -- GA in progress

      That robot is doing the samething. Every uni student is told about how to get a robot how to walk - Robotics student that is.

      --
      -1 is for flame bait and trolls, not because you disagree with someone.
    5. Re:This is news? by Qlither · · Score: 1, Informative
      The summary does not do the article justice. This is the first line from the actual article:

      Picture a spider-like robot that teaches itself to walk, can adapt when damaged and watches its maker as he moves around the room. That might sound terrifying.


      The exciting thing is that the robot could compensate when part of itself was damaged and get around/over obstacles</p></quote>

      The whole point of a Genetic Algorithm is to learn what is the most effective way for it to move. If you remove a leg, it will just run through its simulations again and find a new way of moving.

      Infact a topic very close to this was covered in January

      http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/01/30/1555237/Evolving-Robots-Learn-To-Prey-On-Each-Other

      There they learn to hunt and run away from each other, the video is so much cooler.

      --
      -1 is for flame bait and trolls, not because you disagree with someone.
    6. Re:This is news? by srothroc · · Score: 1

      Imagine a swarm of these things communicating via wireless or 3G, sending walking algorithms to each other while traversing difficult terrain.

      --
      http://www.tenjou.net/
    7. Re:This is news? by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      Or the video game Galapagos. That came out in, what, 1996?

      (Yah, it wasn't a physical robot, but it was a virtual one, and it certainly learned to walk on its own given enough time.)

      --
      Comment of the year
    8. Re:This is news? by Facegarden · · Score: 2, Funny

      Imagine a swarm of these things communicating via wireless or 3G, sending walking algorithms to each other while traversing difficult terrain.

      I've built enough walking robots to not be too chilled by that vision. They'll just kinda poke along, really slowly, and then their batteries will die.

      Awesome.
      -Taylor

      --
      Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
    9. Re:This is news? by srothroc · · Score: 1

      Chilled? I was thinking more of S&R possibilities or exploration.

      --
      http://www.tenjou.net/
    10. Re:This is news? by rockNme2349 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Imagine a beowulf cluster of these things communicating via wireless or 3G, sending walking algorithms to each other while traversing difficult terrain.

      You seem to have made an error in your comment. I took the liberty of fixing it.

      --
      Sewage Treatment Facilities - "Our duty is clear."
    11. Re:This is news? by Jon+Abbott · · Score: 2, Informative

      That is correct. Mark Tilden has been doing similarly cool walking robots (but mostly in analog!) for years now. Check this out:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM4DitOJdyA

      I remember seeing a video of one of Mark Tilden's robots (or maybe it was one of Rodney Brooks) and he was able to bend a leg back and it would keep walking successfully with the remaining legs. The beautiful part was that there was no microcontroller involved - it was simple analog circuits replicating neuron functions. The class of robotics Tilden founded is called "BEAM robotics" - more information can be found here:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BEAM_robotics
      http://www.solarbotics.com/

      --
      Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
    12. Re:This is news? by Facegarden · · Score: 1

      Chilled? I was thinking more of S&R possibilities or exploration.

      I knew that word was going to be the one to get a response. Chilled, titillated, interested, whatever word you want to use. I used chilled because a couple posts up someone quoted a line from the article saying that it might be "terrifying" to see the robot move.

      But yeah, search and rescue, I know. Its just that while this hexapod is a particularly nice one, its still somewhat basic. Its unlikely to get farther than a robot with tank treads on it, because they just work really well. That's why the military uses packbot robots with treads on them.

      To really beat tank treads, you have to make an exceptionally dexterous robot. Something that can move more like a monkey. I'd be really impressed with something like that, and its something I'd one day be interested in doing.

      As it is, though this robot is very nice, its not much more than a bigger-budget version of a nearly identical robot i built on my own in high school. And that robot isn't going to be doing S&R any time soon.
      -Taylor

      --
      Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
    13. Re:This is news? by Shadyman · · Score: 1

      But we'll likely give them solar panels. To stop them, we'd have to block out the sun...

    14. Re:This is news? by Cochonou · · Score: 1

      I think that's the point. Haven't _most_ of these experimentations first been performed in a virtual environment (using genetic algorithms and such on many generations quickly), then implemented on a real robot for perfection ?

    15. Re:This is news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I remember the same robot 15 years ago. It was called Attila. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~chuck/robotpg/attilapg/

    16. Re:This is news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you want to beat caterpillar (tank) treads, I like the Tachikoma-style hybrid approach since it has the best of both worlds in regards to land mobility. Wheels on the ends of the legs so it can move most efficiently on relatively even terrain while the legs work as an active suspension. When the terrain is too rough or uneven to roll, it's just a matter of locking the wheels and walking. Now in a situation where a normal wheeled vehicle would dig in deeper in mud or loose soil, a hybrid walking/wheeled robot could shift its weight and start pulling the stuck wheel(s) out and walking until the ground is more solid. I could see where that approach would be beneficial to planetary rovers as well as certain military applications. Also it isn't that huge a step to alter the design for situations where the terrain is too loose or non-supportive for wheels (like fine sand or snow), there's no reason why caterpillar treads couldn't be used on the feet instead of wheels.

    17. Re:This is news? by SpinyNorman · · Score: 1

      I'm sure they didn't do it the way this one does though - not enough compute power back then. This thing only uses a webcam for feedback to learn walking. It does onboard optical flow processing using Intel's OpenCV library to determine if it's (initially random/uncoordinated) leg movements are moving it forward.

    18. Re:This is news? by gnud · · Score: 1

      We know that it was us who scorched the sky...
      ... on the upside, that got rid of global warming.

    19. Re:This is news? by adonoman · · Score: 1

      Ideally they'd be made up of thousands of uniform pieces that could assemble into various forms as needed. They should be able to build more of those "blocks" as needed, to create copies, or replicas, of themselves. Also, those blocks should be able to communicate with each other via subspace.

  8. UA Engineering's Press Release & Video by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    here's the link to UA Engineering's story w/ youTube video:

    http://www.engineering.arizona.edu/news/story.php?id=86

    or, cnet: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10450394-1.html

    mod this into the ground as flamebait, but why in the hell would one want to read about scientific achievement in an article posted on a cable "news" station's web site (read: all of the cable "news" stations are pure crap), let alone the one that serves as a megaphone for those most hostile to scientific achievement. Let's see, do I want some cable "news" douche to dumb down the info so as to allow it to be presented to me in a more palatable fashion? hmmm, that's a tough one...

    What? you say the article linked in TFS wasn't dumbed down? Well, I must inform you that this is /. , and as such I DIDN'T RTFA linked in TFS!

  9. Welcome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Picture a spider-like robot that teaches itself to walk, can adapt when damaged and watches its maker as he moves around the room.

    I, for one, welcome our new barely walking, self rehabilitating, stalking, hexapod robot overlords.

    1. Re:Welcome by argent · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hexapodia is the key insight.

  10. Isn't this the MSR-H01 Hexapod by iamhassi · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Isn't this the MSR-H01 Hexapod?

    here's the student's video

    Here's video of the MSR-H01 Hexapod:
    video 1
    video 2, at 1:35 it does similar "body wave" movements


    The legs look different, but the student does say on that youtube description "This is a demonstration of the new leg design which is much more solid than the previous design."

    --
    my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    1. Re:Isn't this the MSR-H01 Hexapod by ejtttje · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, for one the hexapod in question is made with Dynamixel servos from Robotis, not the "hobby" servos on the MSR... it's also running a dual-core Atom CPU (Z530 if I remember) vs. a PIC microcontroller, and he is actually using that CPU to do some nice vision processing (optic flow). The MSR is a nice hexapod design, but this newer hexapod is quite a bit more powerful.

    2. Re:Isn't this the MSR-H01 Hexapod by iamhassi · · Score: 1

      So what you're saying is he built the exact same thing that has existed for many years, but his needs a dual core 1.6ghz processor? I still fail to see what this does that wasn't done before. If I strap a quad core to my coffee maker to run the little digital clock have I made a "better" coffee maker? I would think the "old" design is more impressive because it's more efficient, it can do so much with so little processing power.

      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    3. Re:Isn't this the MSR-H01 Hexapod by ejtttje · · Score: 1

      The old version doesn't have vision processing... vision processing is a whole 'nother ball game of power and complexity. Adding the extra CPU opens new doors for doing interesting research, he's aiming higher than a remote controlled puppet. For instance, I'm doing research in manipulation and motion planning with a similar robot, and quite appreciate his design.

      But yeah, if all *you* want is a coffee pot, then don't bother giving it a brain.

    4. Re:Isn't this the MSR-H01 Hexapod by ejtttje · · Score: 1

      Also the Dynamixel servos are an important upgrade IMHO

      This is because they have digital communication with feedback, so the robot can actually sense its "muscles". The common hobby servos, even the ones advertised as "digital", only have one-way analog communication, so all the appendages are blind... no idea if it has run into something, and no idea how hard it's working. [*] Also, there's no way to adjust controller parameters in the servo, for example to make it soft for interaction.

      But these servos are also a new technology, and the student in question (Matt Bunting) has done some extra (and nicely executed) work of his own in order to interface with them. (I've been corresponding with him about this interface board)

      [*] Actually, I believe some Hi-tec servos are starting to include some funky methods for requesting an analog position check or switching into a digital communication mode, but these are poorly advertised and documented, and require support on the servo controllers which drive them, and even so aren't as well designed as the Dynamixel interface, so it's still kind of moot.

  11. Eradicator by mister_playboy · · Score: 1

    Just the first step on the way to the Eradicator Hexapod. :)

    --
    Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
  12. rapid fire guns work better on Replicators by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 1

    rapid fire guns work better on Replicators

  13. Hexapawn logic by iccaros · · Score: 1

    a book released a book in the 1970's where they had a simple chess like game in basic that had a 3 x 3 array. The computer would make a random legal move.. if the computer did not lose after the move.. it saved the move for next time. if it lost after the move it would remove it from memory or more advanced was to block that move if the board had the same set up. so while he is making a robot learn to walk by its self (cool) the logic process in programing is not new at all.. This was based on a math question from 1962 http://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/ http://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=83

  14. Slightly Impressive by cmansley · · Score: 1

    The project is actually very impressive. The some of the technical details are here including how the learning algorithm was implemented. Reinforcement learning, I knew it!

  15. FWIW, x2 by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

    The robot, which is equipped with sensors on each foot, teaches itself to walk

    FWIW, people have been doing this kind of thing in simulation for a long time.

    Also FWIW, in science fiction movies I have trouble with my suspension of disbelief when armies use the kind of "walkers" you usually see. But one with six or more legs could probably work better than track-laying vehicles in extremely rough terrain.

    Probably still not so hot in soft terrain, though.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    1. Re:FWIW, x2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you had ever actually tried to build a robot, you would have found that simulation and real life are two completely different arenas. Building a path planning simulator for a "bug algorithm" is trivial. Implement it in hardware and you can't abstract away the noisy sensors, wheel slip, and no localization. The problem becomes Very Hard. The same applies to building a robot which can teach itself to walk, whether it's a hexapod or a bipedal robot. Doing it on a minimal budget when you don't have the resources of a large corporation like Honda borders on miraculous.

      I worked with the designer on optic flow algorithms in the same Cognitive Robotics class last semester, and got to see the hardware and source code up close. It uses OpenCV and Lucas-Kanade optic flow to figure out if it's making forward progress. The legs are built using a 3D printer in the lab. From the number of failed and abandoned projects I've seen, completing a project like this would be impressive even for a grad student. Matt is finishing his Bachelor of Science this semester.

  16. Video Interview Shows Robot by burningcpu · · Score: 4, Informative

    I saw this a few weeks ago when it was emailed to all the students at UA. Here is a video of the guy who made it, and it shows the robot walking around. The video mentions that IBM bought it from him. http://uanews.org/node/29644

    1. Re:Video Interview Shows Robot by burningcpu · · Score: 2, Informative

      Whoops, it was actually bought by Intel. Pretty cool that my first informative mod comes from spreading misinformation...

    2. Re:Video Interview Shows Robot by Abstrackt · · Score: 2, Funny

      Whoops, it was actually bought by Intel. Pretty cool that my first informative mod comes from spreading misinformation...

      You're well on your way to becoming an editor here. ;)

      --
      They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
    3. Re:Video Interview Shows Robot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, I think he really likes 3D printers. He mentions his 3D printer a lot.

      I also want to get an Intel Atom chip now...

      3D printer....

  17. Half-Life Head Crab? by fluffy99 · · Score: 1

    Am I the only one that thinks it looks kinda like a head crab?

  18. I hate spiders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ew

    1. Re:I hate spiders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      good thing this only has 6 legs, not 8 like a spider

  19. Is It a Feature it is a Bug? by Bob_Who · · Score: 1

    ...Seems buggy by design.

    1. Re:Is It a Feature it is a Bug? by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 1

      Ba duh BUH!

      --
      Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
  20. In the distant future... by Philip_the_physicist · · Score: 2, Funny

    The world is quite different ever since the robotic uprising...

    There is no more unethical treatment of the elephants.
    Well, there's no more elephants, so...
    Ah, but still, it's good.

  21. And next week by Snaller · · Score: 1

    It will teach itself how to grind gold in World of Warcraft.

    --
    If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
  22. Brag much? by Dmritard96 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Ok, great. @ FaceGarden - It's great that you are amazing and nobody is as good as you...really.

  23. WTF - This was done 20 years ago!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Rodney Brooks did this at MIT 20 years ago.

    This is news how? I'm hoping (didn't read the article) that there is something special in what they've done, cause this is old news.

    http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~chuck/robotpg/attilapg/

    http://people.csail.mit.edu/brooks/papers/colt.pdf

    http://books.google.com/books?id=VQcCV1VuT_cC&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=mit+atilla+learns+to+walk&source=bl&ots=n9YkssitMh&sig=zYJ-SRu4KZ7IsWXTPAWeXHVMqCY&hl=en&ei=gZxzS-HeCJCI8Aahg4ydBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CB4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

    1. Re:WTF - This was done 20 years ago!!! by uberchicken · · Score: 2, Funny

      Waaaaay to completely ignore how cool this is

    2. Re:WTF - This was done 20 years ago!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Brooks is one of the most highly influential authors in the field of robotics, but I've read the Angle and Brooks paper on "Small Planetary Rovers" and it says nothing about their robot teaching itself to walk. Their robot has sufficient sensor input to determine its orientation and position in space, but the paper says this information is used for path planning, not low-level movement. Brooks' subsumption AI in the 90s relied on having layers of programmed behaviors which could override each other. My guess is that Attila was preprogrammed with instructions on how to move its legs: i.e. lift legs 2 and 5, rotate these actuators to these positions, drop legs 2 and 5, etc.

      The cool thing about Bunting's robot is that the robot has no conceptions of what combination of leg configurations results in forward movement. There are probably some prior constraints on how many legs should be on the ground and how many should be lifted, and maybe some information on the range of motion for each leg (although it appears the robot figures that information out itself as well).

    3. Re:WTF - This was done 20 years ago!!! by DrSkwid · · Score: 1

      You want to make your way in the CS field? Simple. Calculate rough time of amnesia (hell, 10 years is plenty, probably 10 months is plenty), go to the dusty archives, dig out something fun, and go for it. It's worked for many people, and it can work for you.

                      -- Ron Minnich

      --
      There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
    4. Re:WTF - This was done 20 years ago!!! by amit.ramesh · · Score: 1

      Check out the work on Genghis by Maes and Brooks (Learning to Coordinate Behaviors):

      Here's the abstract of the paper:

      We describe an algorithm which allows a behavior-based robot to learn on the basis of positive and negative feedback when to activate its behaviors. In accordance with the philosophy of behavior-based robots, the algorithm is completely distributed: each of the behaviors independently tries to find out (i) whether it is relevant (ie. whether it is at all correlated to positive feedback) and (ii) what the conditions are under which it becomes reliable (i.e. the conditions under which it maximizes the probability of receiving positive feedback and minimizes the probability of receiving negative feedback). The algorithm has been tested successfully on an autonomous 6-legged robot which had to learn how to coordinate its legs so as to walk forward.

  24. Not that I want to be a spoil sport... by adamkennedy · · Score: 1

    ... but this exact same thing was a demonstration project at the University Open day ... in 1997

    1. Re:Not that I want to be a spoil sport... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Using an Intel Atom in 1997 ? Yeah, right !

  25. Here it comes... by schmu_20mol · · Score: 1

    ... sine to the rescue.

    --
    "Nae Kin! Nae Quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willna be fooled again!"
  26. The reason there's a press release by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is that it was impressive enough to catch Intel's attention. It isn't as though this guy was going around to all the news agencies saying "Hey! Look! I made a robot!" No, he made a robot that really impressed his professor. News of it somehow got back to Intel, I suspect his professor probably is friends with someone there, and they said "Wow, that is an amazing little robot. This interests us in particular since it uses our processor." Ok well when a major company is interested in something your university made, you sure as hell put out some information about it. Do remember that universities are having their budgets cut left and right. Might do some good if people were reminded that cool, commercially applicable, stuff can come from them.

    Also, if all you saw was 6 legs, well you didn't look very hard. The reason Intel's interest was peaked was the legs, it was how it works. That Stiquito is a simple device, probably a finite state machine, that just does the same thing over and over. Notice that what it has no sensors, just an on/off switch. You turn it on, it follows whatever program is in there to move forward. Not the case with this thing, it uses its camera to see what is happening, and then figures out what to do. It is actually processing data and adapting based on that. Much, much more complex.

    1. Re:The reason there's a press release by iamhassi · · Score: 1

      if you RTFA Intel marketing is interested because they can use it to show that their atom processors are good for something other than netbooks, they could care less about the legs and how it processes data.

      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    2. Re:The reason there's a press release by Beezlebub33 · · Score: 1

      Intel (the company) is interested in real robotics. Yes, it may ultimately be a way to sell more processors, but they do serious research into robotics. See this page for example, or this page. They have also been heavily involved in image processing (for robotics and other things) for many years, for example with OpenCV.

      Who knows what the marketing department is really interested in besides making Intel look cool.

      --
      The more people I meet, the better I like my dog.
  27. Robot Overlords by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I for one welcome our new six-legged robot overlords

  28. simpsonsdidit by AlgorithMan · · Score: 1

    okay it were not the simpsons, it was Cornell University, but there was a starfish in a simpsons episode once...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehno85yI-sA

    --
    The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
  29. Brooks Lab at MIT did this in 1990 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yup, published in AAAI almost 20 years ago.

    "The algorithm has been tested successfully on an autonomous 6-legged robot which had to learn how to coordinate its legs so as to move forward."

  30. You can't teach yourself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can only learn

  31. I for one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...welcome our new hexapod overlords.