GetRobo Blog English

Biped MANOI GO does the breakdance - even the head spin!

 A version of the small humanoid robot MANOI does the break dance. Watch the first and last minute for the head spin!

First Autonomous Non-Human Boards Airplane - gets window seat

 News from our friends in Houston!

 LARA (Lego Autonomous Robotic Android) developed by the RoboBuffs, the robotics team at Charles Milby High School in Houston - became the first autonomous humanoid ever to pass airport security and board a commercial airplane. On May 7, 2009, LARA flew from Houston to Michigan on Continental Airlines. Her seat was 5A. The team and LARA participated in the Robofest, where she came in 5th place in the exhibition competition. 

 Here are a couple of photos forwarded to me from the Education Foundation of Harris County, which funded this project. Thank you so much!

 The reason they decided to get LARA a seat was because Fedex damaged her on the way to Michigan last year and lost her for two weeks after the competition.   

 This year, the lead teacher of the team Stephanie Hobbs explains in her email,  "on the way back, (we) almost did not get her on the plane: sent to two different scanning sites, TSA inspected with x-ray, physical, photos, chemicals, bomb squad, extensive interviews with TSA and FBI and bomb squad...finally we were allowed on since one of the inspectors saw the robot on the news through a story on RoboFest and I was wearing a ST Lawrence RoboFest t-shirt. We learned, and trained underclassmen for next year, and made history."

 According to this press release, LARA "is anatomically correct in that it has skeletal, nervous, and muscular systems. It also has arms and legs with moving wrists, elbows, and knees, and it is autonomous in that it can be operated using only verbal commands and gestures (independent of a computer or a remote control)."

 Also with help from the foundation, the RoboBuffs will copyright and trademark their creation as an assembly kit complete with instructions that other schools can use as an educational tool.

Great King Kizer is Eco-Friendly AND introducing the New King Kizer

 Kudos to the organizers and sponsors of the first All-Earth Ecobot Challenge ! The event which was held in Houston on April 25 was a huge success. 

 The MARU Family was there and I promised to post some pictures. Unfortunately, due to the fact that I was up on stage with them during the demos working as an interpreter, I don't have any photos of the actual demo. But here are some pictures and videos during preparation.

 Great King Kizer and the 2 smaller soccer playing robots awaiting their turn.

 Of course, Great King Kizer is famous as a battling robot, but since the event was geared around protecting the environment, it showed off some eco-related tasks. (The tasks were the assigments for the EcoBot competition and the teams used the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education NXT kit to accomplish them.) 

 First, the robot was shown teleoperated using a custom-made motion synchronizer. On stage, Naoki Maru was standing right next to the robot, but the basic idea is that in the future we will be able to operate the robot remotely through our computers and network.

 Next was the trash sorting demo. This time Great King Kizer was put in autonomous mode. The robot was handed either a used plastic bottle, can or paper package and was able to distinguish which one it is using image recognition. Then it looks at each trash bin to figure out where to put it. It takes a little while for the robot to determine the correct bin since it is using an inexpensive camera module from an old cell phone (great example for the recycling theme). On stage, Naoki asked the audience to choose the objects to sort to prove that the robot was not preprogrammed. 

 Other demos were related to baseball and soccer. Here are a couple of pictures of the same demo but at the residence of the Consulate General of Japan in Houston. There was a reception there preceding the event. Great King Kizer was able to pitch a ball and the soccer robots showed off a throw-in.

 

The last day was set aside for visiting local schools. It was fascinating to watch the students getting all excited with the demos. I believe that robots can play a great part in in the future in strengthening the ties of friendship across borders.

 And now for some extra news! The MARU Family has developed a new robot - New King Kizer. You can get a glimpse of it here. Naoki believes that it is the "first humanoid in the world that can jump sideways." It is 60cm tall and weighs only 3kg since it uses only HALF the number of motors that Great King Kizer has. Also it uses PET (polyethylene terephthalate) for its frame which adds another eco-friendly aspect to the robot. More on the New King Kizer soon.......