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Robotics

Korean Bipedal Robot Kit 190

Posted by michael 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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Korean Bipedal Robot Kit More

Korean Bipedal Robot Kit

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  • quick someone give me a billion dollars (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Because I want a robot army.

    Now.

  • Another Robot... (Score:5, Informative)

    by CommanderData ( 782739 ) * <kevinhi@nOspAm.yahoo.com> on Friday July 09, 2004 @04:22PM (#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)

    by arieswind ( 789699 ) * on Friday July 09, 2004 @04:23PM (#9655864) Homepage
    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

    • Re:Hmm (Score:2, Funny)

      by mrtroy ( 640746 )
      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!

  • Most awesome robot EVER... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by chrispyman ( 710460 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @04:23PM (#9655867)
    Seriously, if it wasn't for the $1000+ pricetag that'd be the hit new toy this comming xmas!
  • Don't have Korean installed. North or South?

  • $1400 robot with instructions in Korean... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 09, 2004 @04:25PM (#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 @04:25PM (#9655906) Journal
    ...she's a replicant, isn't she?

  • Lego my eggo (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dotslashconfig ( 784719 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @04:27PM (#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].

  • Does it come with GPP? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Andy Mitchell ( 780458 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @04:27PM (#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 @04:27PM (#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.
    • I was wondering about the same thing. It doesn't look like either robot has enough of it there to contain the necessary gyros and brains for a self balancing robot.

      But I could be wrong.

      jason
      • I've seen one of these in action demoed at my school here in Canada by a robotics shop. I don't believe they are self-balancing with gyros, and iirc, the programming was done in BASIC Stamp. I was pretty underwhelmed by the whole thing, especially considering the hefty price tag.

    • In the robotics group at Stanford they're working on human motion [stanford.edu]. Dynamic balancing is one of the issues they seem to have solved, and really well at that. Well, OK, it's "only" in simulation, but imagine plugging those algorithms into a real robot...

      Last year I attended a talk about this project at a conference, and the videos were really amazing. Unfortunatley, the 'view movies' link at the bottom does not work for me -- maybe limited to their intranet?

  • It does a headstand (Score:3, Funny)

    by burgburgburg ( 574866 ) <`moc.liame' `ta' `60neksilps'> on Friday July 09, 2004 @04:28PM (#9655933)
    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 @04:29PM (#9655945)
    can I install slackware on it?

  • Get Something Cheaper (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Friday July 09, 2004 @04:29PM (#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 @04:29PM (#9655953)
    As of this writing US $1 = 1,149.25 South Korean Won. That makes the robot US $1261.69.

  • It's blind as a bat! sorry! (Score:4, Informative)

    by denis-The-menace ( 471988 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @04:30PM (#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

  • Direct video link (Score:1, Informative)

    by Big Toe ( 112240 )
    http://www.wowrobot.co.kr/enter/dEnterWebData/KHR- 1/khr1_a.wmv

  • You might also want to check out megarobotics (Score:5, Informative)

    by adpsk ( 629601 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @04:32PM (#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.

  • English language site (Score:5, Informative)

    by Secrity ( 742221 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @04:32PM (#9655992)
    English langauge site that says the kit is "Coming Soon" is at http://www.kopropo.com/robot_kits.htm
  • this thing beats Asimo hands down - more flexibility in a much smaller package.

    Check out the video - gotta love the head stand!

  • ...slight inaccuracy... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by paRcat ( 50146 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @04:32PM (#9655996)
    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

  • I for one welcome our new Robotic overlords, even if they are made from R/C car/airplane servos. Let's just hope they are 3 laws safe, or at least that Will Smith will defend us.
  • 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 @04:34PM (#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 @04:35PM (#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.
    • 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.

      I know this happened, plus we have to have moon bases and stuff by 2004, therefore I must be asleep. I keep pinching myself hoping to wake up into what the world should be but alas so far no dice. But I know if I keep pinching myself long enough I will wake up and have a flying car in my garage. (*pinch pinch pinch*)

    • I lusted after those HERO units, they had 'em in the Maplin catalogue for a while (Maplin: UK electronics mail order/retail company; Maplin catalogue: used to be awesome, containing many cool products and useful pinouts/circuit diagrams etc, now a steaming pile of shit)
      The thing is, looking back, they were probably a bit umm.. limited weren't they? Thanks for the link though, I'll try to imagine what my life would have been like if I'd had enough cash to buy one.

  • RoboSapien (Score:3, Interesting)

    by zurkog ( 96881 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @04:36PM (#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 @04:42PM (#9656120)
    They don't have a lot of information, yet..

    Kopropo.com [kopropo.com]

  • 100% slashdotted already ... meantime you can check my bycicle:
    \/__
    O-O

    it's also a bi-pedal !

  • Photos of these guys at the recent Robolympics (Score:5, Interesting)

    by openSoar ( 89599 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @04:42PM (#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].

  • Pretty damn impressive video (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DeepDarkSky ( 111382 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @04:44PM (#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?

  • Ok... (Score:1)

    by BearJ ( 783382 )
    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. Since it's clear that this thing likely its tethered to it's controller (be it computer, etc), I wonder if it would be possible to put more servos in controlling the angle of the pad. Then the pad comes down, and the unit senses if it's tipping, and corrects. K

    • Re:Ok... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by omega9 ( 138280 )
      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
  • Now imagine a Beowulf cluster of those!
  • Lets see . This thing uses like 10 servos,processor,frame,software.

    Analogy for building one would be something like a huge r/c plane with all the servos.

    i think you could make a knockoff for 500 - 1000 dollars ? Any challengers ?
    • 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
  • to do totally unintended things. Of course, this being a general non-purpose robot, almost everything you make it do can be unintended. Reminds me of a very very simple robot I saw on a Japanese TV show this morning - a robot that moves (rolls on wheels) in one direction to serve tea. You pick up the cup, it stops moving. You put the cup back, it turns around and go back where it came from. Simple logic, but great in functionality (for someone to serve tea to you, for instance).

    If only this thing had
  • 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.
    • "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.
      • nah, actually it was more like a joke that they'd screw up the ai of the robots and would come up with security patches once it gets too late.. but was to lazy to write that.
  • Best Prom Ever.
  • With the new iRobot comming out soon I don't think this thing stands a chance.

  • [Semi-OT] Has it REALLY gotten to the point... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by JessLeah ( 625838 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @05:13PM (#9656403)
    ...where the editors need to define "bipedal" for the SlashDot audience? Have we really gotten that much dumbed down?

  • Other posters recognized the robot is basically a framework of servos that can execute a pre-programmed set of movements. In the case of the video, impressive combos, but pre-prog'd nonetheless.

    What if you could hot-wire a wireless connection? (Okay, hot-wire was a bad choice of words, let's use "hack" instead...) Instead of a pre-programmed sequence of movements, you could write intellegent modules to handle things like balance, position, etc... The heavy thinking would occur on your PC while the movemen

  • I don't know where whoever did the Gizmodo writeup got the idea that the entire thing was powered by a single motor. You can clearly see from the photos that each joint has its own servo.
  • This robot appears to be designed for RoboOne, a form of competition that has been popular for a couple years in the Far East, but is just now catching on here in the States. The Robolympics website has some great videos. [robolympics.net]
  • And build my own Awesome-O!
  • I met the guy who builds these at the Robolypmpics back in March. I've got some photos of this guy and his companions, along with some other bipedal robots at http://www.gism.net/photos/gallery/robot/robot.htm l
  • As someone posted above, this robot is a Japanese product.

    The manufacturor has several more movies [kopropo.co.jp], too.
  • Looks real flimsy, which wouldn't be surprising for a Korean toy. When airplane servos are directly attached to each other, they're as fragile as paper. The servo head is held on by a 3/16" thick piece of plastic and not designed to support the weight of another servo. In this toy, the weight of many servos is being transferred to a 3/16" piece of plastic. Perhaps Japan will make a better toy by coupling the servos to load bearing joints.
  • I've been looking for kits and equipment that could be used to construct robotic assembly lines. Examples would be a robotic arm that could grasp a block and place it somewhere, or a roboticly controlled wood lathe/router. I haven't found much that's easy to use. The buzz-terms I've been googling include CNC and stepper motors, but I haven't found what I'm looking for, which would be:
    • equipment that offers a clearly stated (and comprehendable) range of motion types and weight/force tolerances
    • a non-obsc
    • I hate to say it, but having done a little work in this field, but most of this stuff is PLC controlled. And to their little world it is standard and comprehendable. Open doesn't really apply but sort of happens anyway.

      Portable will just get you funny looks ;-)

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