GetRobo Blog English

Humanoid robots hustle and shuffle

 You've noticed that humanoid robots built by hobbyists kinda shuffle when they walk. That's because many of them use "parallel linked legs" which use frames that look like 2 parallelograms, one on top of the other. The merits of this structure is that it allows the robot builders to make larger robots that are not as heavy and that are more stable.

 This structure doesn't fit robots that play soccer, but at least for competing in the ROBO-ONE battling competitions, it's become a must if you want to win. That's because the builders want longer arms on their robots which can only be proportionate to the length of the legs due to ROBO-ONE regulations. Now that the rule has been changed so that the distance between the tip of the left and right arms when open must not exceed 240% of the length of the legs (used to be 340%), the builders are eying to make taller robots without adding the weight.

  Recently the ROBO-ONE Light Class Competitionfor robots under 3kg (7 lbs) took place in Yokohama. The champion robot Fantom (photo below) gets to go to the 17th ROBO-ONE. Both Fantom and second place Gargoil-mini use the parallel link structure.

 Check out the final match between the 2 robots.  (Written  by IKETOMU )

ROBO-ONE humanoid robots compete to become household helpers

 ROBO-ONE is holding it's second  Humanoid Helper Project this weekend. (For those that missed the first one in 2008, check out the articles here.)

 The finals are being held right this minute in Yokohama Japan, but GetRobo guest author IKETOMU has kindly sent us his report about yesterday's preliminary. 

 The purpose of the Humanoid Helper Project is to motivate individual robot builders to develop and show off their technologies that may eventually be used to commercialize household robots. Household robots meaning not the Roombas, but the Rosies.

 In this competition, robots are remotely controlled via WiFi by operators that are looking at the environment through a PC. This year, the preliminary consisted of the following 3 events.

 1) Pouring water from a plastic bottle into a cup

 2) Carrying a dish of ping-pong balls on a tray

 3) A 30 minutes endurance race

  Three robots entered the preliminary. Doka Harumi (Doka project), THKR-4 (CAP Project) and Musashi (MARU Family). All are HUGE. As of the end of yesterday, 1st place went to Musashi,  2nd place was THKR-4 and 3rd place was Doka Harumi.

 Enjoy the videos!

Pouring water with a bottle into a cup by Doka Harumi Pouring water with a bottle into a cup by THKR-4 Pouring water with a bottle into a cup by Musashi Carrying a dish of ping-pong ball on the tray by Doka Harumi Carrying a dish of ping-pong ball on the tray by THKR-4 Carrying a dish of ping-pong ball on the tray by Musashi Thirty minutes endurance race by Doka Harumi, ThKR-4 and Musashi

The Genuine Great King Kizer follows "Moore's Law"

 Just sent in from robot builder Naoki Maru. A video of his newest creation - the Genuine Great King Kizer (or "Shin Great King Kizer" in Japanese), which stands 1 meter tall. (The robot looks a bit taller than the Maru Family's youngest son who is seen in the end of the video.)

  

 According to Maru-san, the size of his robots have doubled every 12-18 months, which is like "Moore's Law" - well, sort of. 

 The newest Shin Great King Kizer uses 12 servo motors (KRS-6003HV) on each leg. That's 4 servos for each pitch axis. Overall, the robot uses 37 servos and has 25 degrees of freedom. (I checked the catalog and these servos cost 412,020 yen for a pack of 18, which is about $4,660 in today's exchange rate. So you do the math to find out how much it costs to build this robot.)

 The Shin Great King Kizer won the ROBO-ONE Grand Prix which was held in November. It also participated in the "world's first" wrestling match between a robot and a professional (human) wrestler.

Where can I buy MANOI GO?

 Since the MANOI GO made a performance at the ROBO-ONE GATE dance competition late last month, GetRobo has received several emails asking about where they can purchase this robot.  

 So I asked Sadahiro Arai - owner of the robot shop Technologia in Akihabara Tokyo. MANOI GO was developed by  MANOI producer Masayuki Okamoto and robot builder Dr. GIY. It's not meant to be a mass produced product but they are willing to customize and sell it to you for about 300,000 yen (about $3,400 in today's exchange rate).  It will include all the motion data and clothing but NOT the head spin component, which is too bad because I think most of the people that wanted to buy this were interested in the head spin. The reason for that is because the head spin component needs to be adjusted each time and they won't be able to provide the maintenance/support after they sold you the robot. 

 If you are still interested in owning this robot, please contact Arai-san at Technologia  or GetRobo. Meanwhile here is a video from the recent dance competition.

ROBO-ONE Dancing Robots

 Biped Robot News Japan has lots of videos of dancing robots. Via Robots Dreams.

 My favorite.