Kojiro Musculoskeletal Humanoid Robot
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 5 of March , 2010 at 2:31 am
Last August, we posted about ECCE, an “anthropomimetic” robot designed to attempt to duplicate the muscular and skeletal functionality of a human. Kojiro is a robot from the University of Tokyo’s JSK Robotics Laboratory which was built based on the same kinds of ideas. At this stage, Kojiro’s highlight is his spine, which can bend and flex like ours do to allow the robot to move its torso. While it’s true that Kojiro’s spine doesn’t offer a range of motion that’s significantly different from (say) a couple axes worth of conventional servos, the big advantage at this point is that having a structure of artificial muscles, tendons, and bones makes the robot much more forgiving of impacts to both its own structure and whatever it may be trying not to crush. The disadvantage, however, is that such a complex structure is tricky to get to move just exactly the way you want it to, since you’ve got all kinds of different artificial muscles tugging different ways at the same time.
All of this research is focused on building robots that are more human-like, but I’m still wondering just why this is such an appealing thing to roboticists. I totally understand why learning from biological systems is important, but most of the successful applications that I’ve seen are bio-inspired rather than biomemetic, taking elements of biological design and using them to build better robots as opposed to building robots that are modeled on their biological counterparts. As both EECE and Kojiro show, humans are ridiculously complicated inside, and as research towards a potential anthropomimetic endpoint, it’s a good goal. My question, though, is that as a development perspective for practical robotics, are we better off (at this point, anyway) just letting robots be unapologetically robotic?
[ JSK Robotics Lab ] VIA [ IEEE ]
Comments (7)
Category: Androids,Biorobotics,Research
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Comment by whiskers
Made Friday, 5 of March , 2010 at 7:20 am
That is incredibly complex and impressive. Yet makes me think of I,Robot and “Please remain calm. How may I be of assistance?”
Comment by Spencer W-F
Made Saturday, 6 of March , 2010 at 4:19 am
Evan, I couldn’t agree more, I am yet to find a humanoid robot appealing, as that is simply trying to build a human, which is something we already have.
I have always believed that building robots that are bio-inspired is a good idea, but replicating animals or humans is, in my opinion, a waste of time and resources.
Comment by Joey1058
Made Saturday, 6 of March , 2010 at 10:48 pm
Just to get a bit philosophical here: God still has the last laugh.
“Okay, you’ve cracked DNA. You’ve fabricated the skeletal system down to the marrow. And you’ve replicated the brain right down to the way it undulates in deep sleep.”
God sits back in a chair with a good drink.
“Now… Put it all together!” *snicker*
Comment by Barrett Ames
Made Sunday, 7 of March , 2010 at 9:17 am
I think the drive for these scientists is to learn more about human nature. Robotics is one of the great ways to learn more and more about ourselves as we try to create something that can act like us.
However this knowledge doesn’t really make you any money, at least directly.
So yes I agree with you that this doesn’t really help practical robotics, instead it helps the understanding of humans. And maybe that’s what they were shooting for instead of making the super roomba.
Comment by Hendrik
Made Sunday, 7 of March , 2010 at 9:22 am
I think this discussion is going the wrong way. If you think, robots are artificial humans you can even discuss about Frankenstein, only spareparts differ (a little).
Our modern world and everything we made was made for and by humans. Especially workplaces and homes. If you want to make robots a helper to humans, they have to walk, climb stairs, lift something and so on. Humans are the only species that walks upright. The hole “construction” of human body is optimized for that action. Its balance and the way power and strength is provided in it. If you want a machine to keep up with it you have to imitate the human body in detail. In first place mechanically and in second place its brains and nervs. If a robot could move like a human, you will get a machine that can be used everywhere and even there where humans DONT WANT to go. Or at times when humans DONT WANT to work. A robot is only a sophisticated machine, this is NOT a question of god or something like that. It would be a the same, if you argue whether a car is immoralic or not.
Comment by quantum_flux
Made Tuesday, 19 of October , 2010 at 12:26 am
The human body has a lot of unnecessary functions though, for instance, a robot doesn’t need to masturbate to stay alive.
Comment by zer0
Made Monday, 8 of November , 2010 at 6:31 pm
While the robot itself is quite interesting and quite an undertaking. I find the user interfaces to be more interesting. First, the input controller is a PS2 controller. Great use of current tech that lends itself well to controlling something in a three dimensional space. The next thing I find really interesting is the GUI for sensor monitoring. Some anime fans will be quick to point out that the designer must also be a fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion. When the system was loaded, there was a glimpse of the NERV logo and the sensor icons that show linked and broken connections are the same style as in the same anime, NGE. Awesome!
