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Korean Bipedal Robot Kit

Posted by michael on Fri Jul 09, 2004 03:21 PM
from the wow-robot dept.
The Black Dragon writes "This has got to be the coolest thing I've seen in a while. It's a bipedal (walks on two legs) robot that you can put together yourself and program with movements. The site is in Korean, but from what I've been able to get from translators and currency exchange, it'll cost about $1,400. (There's a movie embedded half way down.)" Gizmodo has a blurb.
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  • Another Robot... (Score:5, Informative)

    by CommanderData (782739) * <kevinhiNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Friday July 09 2004, @03:22PM (#9655857)
    Ohhh Boy, embedded video on the web page. That site will be smoked QUICK!

    Here is a link that shows what appears at a glance to be a superior robot model [vstone.co.jp] from Japan doing all kinds of neat tricks. It has 22 Degrees of Freedom rather than the 17 DOF in the robot from Wow Robot. This page also has video, but they are all links at the bottom of the page.

    I agree that one of these would be great fun to play with!
  • Hmm (Score:3, Funny)

    Now, think of what I could do if I had 2 extra hands, I could eat pizza, play video games, and browse the internet all at the same time.. not to mention all the other things you guys could come up with
    • Now, think of what I could do if I had 2 extra hands, I could eat pizza, play video games, and browse the internet all at the same time.. not to mention all the other things you guys could come up with
      And build a robot girlfriend.

      Man these things are cheaper than a mail order bride!
      • Re:Hmm (Score:3, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        This is going to be the best prom ever!
  • by chrispyman (710460) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:23PM (#9655867)
    Seriously, if it wasn't for the $1000+ pricetag that'd be the hit new toy this comming xmas!
    • by DeepDarkSky (111382) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:33PM (#9656005)
      When you consider things like Segway costing thousands, and video cards costing $400-$500 and high-end MP3 players at $500+, $1400 is not all that much more. Think of it a different way...5 years ago, you'd pay $2500 for a PII...
  • Don't have Korean installed. North or South?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 09 2004, @03:25PM (#9655900)
    I know what I'm doing this weekend!
  • I welcome... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    my new robot over--. Wait, we're in charge here. THE ROBOTS WELCOME US!
  • But... (Score:5, Funny)

    by cuzality (696718) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:25PM (#9655906) Journal
    ...she's a replicant, isn't she?
  • Lego my eggo (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dotslashconfig (784719) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:27PM (#9655924)
    This robot reminds me a lot of the build-it-yourself Lego machines thay have been produced for a number of years now. The kits provide you with the base legos, along with motors, gears, and a nifty computer interface device that lets you write programs for a robot to execute.

    The legos were a lot of fun, but the batteries for the remote/receiver never lasted that long.

    This could be a nice next-generation version of the lego system, or it could turn into (brace yourself) this [irobotmovie.com].
  • by Andy Mitchell (780458) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:27PM (#9655925) Homepage
    Any idea if this is equiped with Genuine People Personality? :-)
  • Static or dynamic? (Score:5, Informative)

    by kraksmokr (216277) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:27PM (#9655930) Journal
    That is an interesting approach. Basically it looks like their robot is a framework for servos. There's almost nothing to it but servo mounts that are connected to each other.

    The video is impressive, but are we watching a simple playback of a preprogrammed sequence? In that case, no dynamic "balancing" is necessary.

    A robot with true balance would have to be MUCH more sophisticated.
  • That's all I need to know.

    Who want's a kidney? I'm willing to sell a kidney to get this thing.

    Note: I didn't say "I'm willing to sell one of my kidneys to get this thing.". What do you care where the kidney comes from?

  • And you have the most freaking cool toy ever.
  • But... (Score:3, Funny)

    by sjalex (757770) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:29PM (#9655945)
    can I install slackware on it?
  • by MBCook (132727) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Friday July 09 2004, @03:29PM (#9655946) Homepage
    Neat, but where do the electroncis go on it? It doesn't look like it's got the room?

    That said, you can get a cheaper one. They are not as good, but... they're cheaper. Lynxmotion's Biped [lynxmotion.com], or the less fancy Parallax Todler [parallax.com].

  • Price (Score:5, Informative)

    by bluelarva (185170) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:29PM (#9655953)
    As of this writing US $1 = 1,149.25 South Korean Won. That makes the robot US $1261.69.
  • by denis-The-menace (471988) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:30PM (#9655964)
    I've seen these from another company.
    You must program each individual joint one by one, trial and erre style.

    No feedback, no sensors, no remote control!
    just memory for the movements
  • by adpsk (629601) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:32PM (#9655991)
    Here's another [megarobotics.com]Korean bot kit. Fun stuff. I saw them demo the quad w/RF module. Takes some of the fun out of it, but then again you can concentrate on AI if that's your thing.
  • by Secrity (742221) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:32PM (#9655992)
    English langauge site that says the kit is "Coming Soon" is at http://www.kopropo.com/robot_kits.htm
  • by paRcat (50146) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:32PM (#9655996) Homepage
    All 17 different joints are powered by a single motor

    Really? I had no idea that 17 different servos could be powered by one motor. How interesting.

    In case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic.

  • (There's a movie embedded half way down.)

    No, that's its willy. Better work on that translation. :P

  • not this particular model, which seems a bit cheap, and wholely underpowered to do anything usefull....

    But it wouldnt take to much extra engineering to turn such miniturized robots into battery powered metal go-to bots.

    Certainly the complexities in getting these machines to take out the garbage or wash the windows may be out of the consumer markets range for some years....

    but how difficult would it be to use such machines in a more remote control Wi-Fi sense? put a little webcam on its head, give him

  • mirror of the video (Score:4, Informative)

    by haluness (219661) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:34PM (#9656027)
    given that the page will be smoking in a while, here's [psu.edu]
    a mirror of the video
  • Heathkit HERO (Score:4, Interesting)

    by GPLDAN (732269) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:35PM (#9656034)
    I grew up in St. Joseph, MI down the street from the Heath/Zenith plant. They released the heathkit HERO robot, the first (this is arguable, Im not really a robot historian) consumer grade robot.

    We had one in school, our science teacher had buddies at Heathkit. You programmed it in assembly, via a keypad on the top of the robot. I don't even remember if there was a way to load an instruction set into it, until later models came along.

    There is a website [dsavage.net] dedicated to the good ol Hero. Back then (late 1980s) we were sure that by 2004 we'd all be living with robots like the ones in the new I,Robot movie. I guess it didn't really happen.

    It would be cool if the I,Robot bad guy (only seen the trailer, they got THAT GUY, who always plays villans, to play the villan) had a HERO on his desk or something. Esp. since the USR company in the movie is supposed to be in Chicago, right across the lake and home of several Zenith facilities.
  • RoboSapien (Score:3, Interesting)

    by zurkog (96881) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:36PM (#9656048) Homepage
    The description on the page sucks, but go to your local Best Buy and check out the RoboSapien [bestbuy.com]. Its joints have several degrees of freedom, and the remote looks like a TiVo remote on steroids.

    If that's not screaming to be hacked, hooked to a linux box, and used to terrify the cat, I don't know what is. And at 1/14th the price of the Korean `bot. It's not a kit though, which I know is a negative on Slashdot...
  • How is this different to Robosapien? [gadgetshop.com]
  • Another site (Score:3, Interesting)

    by HogGeek (456673) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:42PM (#9656120)
    They don't have a lot of information, yet..

    Kopropo.com [kopropo.com]

  • by openSoar (89599) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:42PM (#9656123)
    These little guys were the star of the recent Robolympics [robolympics.net] in San Francisco (apart from my combat [tricerabot.com] robot that it :) ) - absolutely amazing - some great pictures here [beambot.com].
  • by DeepDarkSky (111382) on Friday July 09 2004, @03:44PM (#9656161)
    even if it was all a pre-programmed sequence. The thing's ability to do headstand, bend and lay down face down flat and get back up, and sidle, etc. It makes for some very flexible movements. It's not a utility robot, certainly.

  • I was watching the video w/o sound and it appeared to be "raising the roof", "doing the worm", "doing the electric slide", and then acting like Jim Carey in his dream scene from Dumb and Dumber.

    While I am impressed with the video (that it stood up to the Slasdotters) I have to question whether the actual robots will perform as shown?
  • Now imagine a Beowulf cluster of those!
  • by JessLeah (625838) on Friday July 09 2004, @04:13PM (#9656403)
    ...where the editors need to define "bipedal" for the SlashDot audience? Have we really gotten that much dumbed down?
    • Re:Bipedal? (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      bipedal (walks on two legs)

      I'm glad they included that definiton for the /. crowd.


      Yeah, cause otherwise, I would have thought it was a bike that swings both ways.
    • "now, if MS buys off that robot idea and makes it cuter and implants an AI system into it and sells it to every household in the world... we could see the end of the world as we know it."

      So, in other words, if Microsoft invents the positronic brain, builds millions of androids, develops a very long lasting power cell for them, sufficiently arms them, and actually programs them to take over the world, then they can end all life on the planet.
    • Re:Ok... (Score:3, Insightful)

      Ok, I'm a little less than impressed by how it walks. Essentially it's waddling, putting it's center of gravity over one "pad" (or foot), moving the other, and then moving the COG to the other pad. Admittedly, this is a decent hack, and it does work.

      Stand up, lift up your left foot, and lean to your left without putting down your left foot. It's obsurdly obvious you'll fall down because your center of gravity has shifted to much. This method does work for the robot, and it's not a "hack", because it's the
    • There is nothing to stop someone from building a knock off of this kit. Except maybe your math (17 joints = 17 motors) =].

      The only thing that appears to be special about the servos is the position sensing. Based on someones translation of the page, you can program the robot by positioning its limbs and clicking a mouse button.

      Since the servos only have three leads coming out of them (white, black and red like a regular RC servo) I'm going to guess that the servos are gutted of their electronics and