This project presents a method for synthesizing motions of a humanoid robot that receives an object from a human, with focus on a natural object passing scenario where the human initiates the passing motion by moving an object toward the robot, which continuously adapts its motion to the observed human motion in realtime. In this scenario, the robot not only has to recognize and adapt to the human action but also has to synthesize its motion quickly so that the human does not have to wait holding an object. We solve these issues by using a human motion database obtained from two persons performing the object passing task. The rationale behind this approach is that human performance of such a simple task is repeatable, and therefore the receiver (robot) motion can be synthesized by looking up the passer motion in a database. We demonstrate in simulation that the robot can start extending the arm at an appropriate timing and take hand configurations suitable for the object being passed. We also perform hardware experiments of object handing from a human to a robot.
Nick Donaldson’s new hexapod robot Grinder goes for a skate on the tennis courts at the park. Approximate top speed is 6mph / 10kph when skating, 10x the walking speed. The wheels are passively mounted at an angle to the legs, allowing them to roll on the ground when the legs are spread. Find out more about Grinder at http://www.gotrobots.com/grinder/
Presented at ICRA 2013 by Samuel M. Felton, Michael T. Tolley, Cagdas D. Onal, Daniela Rus, and Robert J. Wood from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University
Servo motors are often driven using the PWM outputs available on most embedded MCUs. But while the Pi does have native HW support for PWM, there is only one PWM channel available to users at GPIO18. That kind of limits your options if you need to drive more than one servo or if you also want to dim an LED or do some sort of other PWM goodness as well. Thankfully … the PI does have HW I2C available, which we can use to communicate with a PWM driver like the PCA9685, used on Adafruit’s 16-channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Driver!
Using this breakout, you can easily drive up to 16 servo motors on your Raspberry Pi using our painless Python library and this tutorial.
Note this cannot be used for driving anything other than analog (1-2 millisecond pulse drive) servos. DC motors, AC motors and digital servos are not going to work.
Adafruit 16-Channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Driver – I2C interface – PCA9685 – You want to make a cool robot, maybe a hexapod walker, or maybe just a piece of art with a lot of moving parts. Or maybe you want to drive a lot of LEDs with precise PWM output. Then you realize that your microcontroller has a limited number of PWM outputs! What now? You could give up OR you could just get this handy PWM and Servo driver breakout. (read more)
The latest advancement in robotics are two automatons designed to bluntly inform you that it’s time to brush your teeth or change your socks.
Robot maker CrazyLabo and the Kitakyushu National College of Technology, both in Fukuoka Prefecture, have developed a female humanoid and a dog robot that sniff a person’s breath and feet and use snarky remarks and exaggerated reactions to encourage offenders to do something about their breath and body odor.
The female robot, Kaori-chan, has brown hair and blue eyes. When a person breathes in her face, she analyzes and quantifies components in their breath, and evaluates the smell on a scale of one to four.
If their breath smells good, Kaori-chan says, “It smells like citrus!”
From the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard:
Inspired by the biology of a fly, with submillimeter-scale anatomy and two wafer-thin wings that flap at 120 times per second, robotic insects, or RoboBees, achieve vertical takeoff, hovering, and steering. The tiny robots flap their wings using piezoelectric actuators — strips of ceramic that expand and contract when an electric field is applied. Thin hinges of plastic embedded within a carbon fiber body frame serve as joints, and a delicately balanced control system commands the rotational motions in the flapping-wing robot, with each wing controlled independently in real-time. Applications of RoboBees could include distributed environmental monitoring, search-and-rescue operations, and assistance with crop pollination.
The Romibo Robot Project demonstrates some of the capabilities of the Romibo social robot, a robot designed for social therapy, companionship and fun. Romibo is an open-source DIY mobile robot platform for social robotics research. Here we demonstrate a few of the capabilities and sensors including touch sensing, light sensing, accelerometers, wifi, IR range finder, smartphone eyes and others. Read more at www.Romibo.org
I’ve got most of the subsystems on my cookie machine working so that I can dispense desired quantities of one ingredient (sugar). I’m using a UI developed using processing.org, which sends serial commands to a Parallax Propeller microcontroller.
After four years intensive R&D, inspiration, design and build, Micromagic Systems is proud to unveil Mantis — the biggest, all-terrain operational hexapod robot in the world.
This 2.2-litre Turbo Diesel-powered, British-designed and -built walking machine can be piloted or remote WiFi-controlled, stands 2.8 metres high with a five meter working envelope and weighing in at just under two tonnes.
It’s been 14 months since I started working on this project… and it’s ready for some critique. It’s a robot… which seems simple enough right?
The project goal is to create a foundation / approach to integrate STEM (or STEAM if you like) into just about any discipline from grade-school to university.
You want to make a cool robot, maybe a hexapod walker, or maybe just a piece of art with a lot of moving parts. Or maybe you want to drive a lot of LEDs with precise PWM output. Then you realize that your microcontroller has a limited number of PWM outputs! What now? You could give up OR you could just get this handy PWM and Servo driver breakout.
Printable catalog (PDF) or (EPUB)
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