This Is What Happens When You Build A Hexapod
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 10 of February , 2010 at 1:44 am
Matt Bunting, a senior at the University of Arizona in electrical engineering, built himself a hexapod as a final project for his class on cognitive robotics. Built mostly from spare parts, the robot uses an Intel Atom processor powering an Ubuntu OS computer. A Logitech QuickCam mounted on the front of the bot watches what happens when movements are initiated, and uses the changing scene to determine what effect the movements are having. This lets the robot adaptively learn how to move, rather than relying on programming:
“One of the things I wanted to explore was the idea of reinforcement learning. What I wanted to do was not preprogram any of those walking algorithms, I wanted it to figure out how to walk straight forward on its own,” Bunting said. “It has the ability to figure it out itself.”
Bunting’s professor Tony Lewis says the bot’s learning algorithm can be applied to tasks other than walking. If a leg breaks or a motor gets damaged, for example, it can relearn how to walk. The robot even has foot contact sensors that can be used for terrain adaptation.
Pretty cool, right? A couple days after Matt posted a video of his bot on YouTube, Intel ordered themselves two copies to take on an international publicity tour for the Atom processor. Then, the company who provided Matt with the servos, CrustCrawler Robotics, asked Matt to help develop software for some of their hexapod kits.
So, let this be a lesson to all you DIY roboticists out there: if you build something cool, Intel will buy it, and you’ll be offered a job at a robotics company.
[ University of Arizona ] VIA [ Crave ]
Comments (5)
Category: Artificial Intelligence,DIY,Hobby
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Digg
Comment by Matt
Made Wednesday, 10 of February , 2010 at 12:05 pm
no email to send you this suggestion .. alas comment then the NASA robot astronaut
http://video.computerworld.com/services/player/bcpid1351827287?bctid=64874561001
Comment by Evan Ackerman
Made Wednesday, 10 of February , 2010 at 5:04 pm
Comment form should be back up (again)
Comment by classy
Made Sunday, 14 of February , 2010 at 4:50 pm
difference between japanese and american robotics… ours learn theirs is pre programed
Comment by roofing lancaster
Made Monday, 21 of November , 2011 at 11:40 am
One of my favorite posts.
Comment by computer services chicago
Made Sunday, 4 of December , 2011 at 12:07 pm
An attention-grabbing dialogue is worth a comment. I believe that you should write extra on this topic, it may not be a taboo subject but typically individuals are not brave enough to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers
