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Balancing Robot Can Take a Kicking
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Dec 06, 2007 03:25 PM
from the soon-they'll-be-doing-judo dept.
from the soon-they'll-be-doing-judo dept.
BotKicker writes "A Japanese team has created the first full-size humanoid robot that won't fall over if you push it. A video shows it staggering and regaining balance after blows from a researcher. Being able to withstand shoves and kicks is essential if robots are to truly be our buddies, they reckon. 'The robot's balancing ability depends on its joints. For one thing they are never kept rigid, even when standing still, meaning they yield slightly when the robot is pushed. Force sensors within each joint also work out the position and velocity of the robot's centre mass as it moves around. Control software rapidly figures out what forces the robot's feet need to exert on the ground to bring it back into balance, and tells the joints how to act.'"
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Submission: Balancing robot can take a kicking by Anonymous Coward
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Been done (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Been done (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Been done (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Been done (Score:4, Funny)
it's called progress. duh.
Parent
Chuck Norris (Score:5, Funny)
I for one... (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
ridiculous (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
He'll see you coming (Score:2)
I, for one, (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I, for one, welcome our new Wushu Black-Belt Robot Overlords, and I would like to remind them that as a trusted internet personality, I can help motivate the workers toiling in their underground Whupass Mines.
With friends like these...... (Score:5, Funny)
If these guys tend to kick and shove their buddies, it may explain why they have so much time to work on robots....."Finally, a friend I can kick who won't think I'm a jerk"
Nothing like the Server's Kicking. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Note (Score:2)
With friends like these... (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds like someone's been playing too many violent video games.
Re:With friends like these... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Cool (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Cool (Score:5, Funny)
I'd say the major stereotypical problems with robots in the past is that they might go beserk and kill people.
Parent
Ob reference (Score:3)
Or shove old ladies down the stairs.
Cue in " terrible secret of space [wikipedia.org]" !
Do you have stairs in your house?
Re:Cool (Score:5, Insightful)
A robot should not bend over and pick up weighty objects. It should squat and pick it up while maintaining it s rear electrical conduit in a straight configuration to prevent getting a herniated servo in the back.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Unless the robot is a hot chick femmbot, in which case it should most definitely bend over to pick up heavy objects. It should also fail to get a proper grip the first time, necessitating a quick ass-wriggling repositioning while still bent over.
Next step: decide when staggering is a good idea (Score:5, Interesting)
For example, you're standing on the sidewalk with your back to traffic. Someone bumps into you. You will do everything in your power *not* to stagger backwards in this situation -- you might reach out to grab something solid, like a signpost, a trash can, or the hand of someone with a body mass comparable or greater than your own. But you wouldn't reach for the hand of a child -- you'd just end up pulling them into the street with you.
You've got a split second to make this choice, as well. Make it wrong, and you may die, or even take someone else with you.
Re:Next step: decide when staggering is a good ide (Score:5, Funny)
First, why wouldn't I reach for the hand of a child (if that was the closet/best option)? If the issue is I'm falling back beause my center of mass is behind me, I only need to shift the mass, not overcome the momentum of my movement. Yes, I will pull the child towards me, but it may be enough of a shift in mass to pull myself towards the child as well.
Second, this is likely on of those less-is-more situations. If I'm on the side of a busy street, and not on the edge of a tall cliff, I'm probably better off just taking a small step back to steady myself. In fighting to keep my feet in front of me, I leave my body without support, and end up falling into traffic.
Third, if I make a habit of putting myself into situations where the slighest loss of balance may result in a life-or-death situation, maybe the gene pool will be better off if I do fall into traffic.
Parent
Easier (Score:3, Insightful)
Quoth the robot (Score:5, Funny)
Contempt for Robots (Score:5, Funny)
In an cruel twist, it is this same ability that will make our punches and kicks ineffectual for defending our fleshy bodies from the robots when they turn against us.
Re: (Score:2)
Although, given Mankind's propensity to anthropomorphize everything, how long will it be until we reach the stage of seeing a robot being pushed around and having people respond with "poor robot!"?
Captured by Robots! (Score:2)
Fudd's Law (Score:3, Insightful)
On the other hand, it may just raise the energy barrier, so to speak.
Crucial real-world skills (Score:2)
Not bad... (Score:2, Funny)
Don't kick the baby. (Score:2)
NO YOU FOOLS! (Score:3, Funny)
Ability to not fall down the stairs. [youtube.com]
Just wait till they fight back... (Score:4, Funny)
Avoid the kick (Score:2)
A Sad Conclusion (Score:2)
I'd prefer to think that if robots are to be our buddies they be made warm and soft and fuzzy and huggable because that's what we want to interact with. Unfortunately, the above indictment of human nature is probably more correct. Optimism is faith; pessimism is science.
Even worse, on a couple different levels: sooner or later suicide bombers are going to start buying robots. We, however, will develop autonomous ant
Can the add one feature? (Score:2)
This is redicruous! (Score:2)
Other applications.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I recently met an MS sufferer that has been completely confined to a wheelchair for years because the nerves in her legs don't fire properly, even though she has sensation and can tell when she is not balanced.
So take this so called "robot" technology, and make it something that becomes sort of like a small exo-skeletal muscle system. Call it robotically controlled balance assistance, or whatever you want.
End result, she's out of the chair. In the real world. Good, no?
Pictures (Score:3, Informative)
http://janneinosaka.blogspot.com/2007/11/i-1.html [blogspot.com]
Most interesting part - midway through the movie (Score:3, Interesting)
Half way through the movie, the robot is pushed through its left side. It eerily performs an extremely human like side-stepping movement to rebalance itself.
I have been replaying the sequence over and over again for last 15 minutes, it's the most un-fuckin'-believable amazing foot movement I've seen in bi-pedal robots!!!
Or Real Dolls (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)