Getting a humanoid robot to jump is no easy task <... You need to have very powerful servos capable of very high acceleration, something that until recently wasn't readily available to hobbyists. Not in a small package and relatively reasonable price, anyway. This robot is able to jump some 3cm into the air using the new (as of August 2009) Kondo KRS-2552HV in its legs; these servos put out 14kg*cm of torque and can rotate 60 degrees in 0.14 second. They're no RX-64, but they only cost about $80 each as opposed to $300.

The upshot of all this is that servos are getting faster, stronger, and cheaper, which means that we’ll be seeing more robots capable of feats like running and jumping.

VIA [ Robots-Dreams ]

Last year, the fastest micromouse we saw made it through a maze in 6.4 seconds. This year, they’ve gotten even faster. Apparently there was some question as to whether a micromouse could break the 5 second barrier when it comes to getting through an expert class maze (which I think are somehow standardized in turns/length), and although it didn’t pull it off in official competition, a mouse called Tetra managed to make it through the maze in a seriously scant 4.7 seconds in a demonstration:

Nobody is quite sure how or why this mouse is so fast, but some experienced people have some ideas… David Otten, a 22 year veteran of micromouse competitions, after the jump. (Read more…)

Yeah, so it goes about how you’d expect. The robot in the ring is the Genuine Great King Kizer, a 1 meter tall 9 kilo humanoid with 37 servos and 25 degrees of freedom. Every 18 months or so, designer Naoki Maru has doubled the size of this robot, which means that it’ll be playing soccer with Hajime 33 sometime in 2011.

Meantime, let’s get some industrial robots and see if one of them can pin the guy in the tight shorts. Or just, you know, crush him.

VIA [ GetRobo ]

This “mech-inspired” hexapod comes from Trossen Robotics Community member Zenta. You remember Zenta, right? The cool thing one of the cool things about this hexapod is that each of its legs has four (four!) degrees of freedom:

The mech-inspired bit does suggest that T-Hex may not ultimately be outfitted with an arsenal of weaponry and sent into battle in a Mech Warfare competition. Sadface.

[ T-Hex ] VIA [ Trossen ]

Andrew Alter’s monstrous Mech Warrior “Hagetaka” that we previewed before RoboGames back in April ended up being just to monstrous for its own good. Andrew scaled things back a bit (but not too much) with Giger, a 5 kg, 24 servo (including 16 of those terrifying RX-64s), ten thousand dollar completely custom walking humanoid. The gait still needs a little bit of work, but remember, it’s being developed from scratch and there are a heck of a lot of servos (and other electronics) to coordinate. Besides being totally badass in its own right, Giger is going to get a weapons upgrade for Mech Warfare competitions, namely an arm or two replaced with airsoft guns.

Building a robot like this, or even a robot not nearly as complicated and/or expensive as this, takes a truly staggering amount of work and skill. Adrenalynn over on the Trossen Robotics forums has helpfully posted a series of 20 steps that will guarantee that you just might have a working Mech in time for RoboGames next April:

How To Win At Mechwarfare: 20 Simple Steps

1. Assemble a true walking ‘bot that can handle the payload
2. Teach it to walk
3. Teach it to walk untethered
4. Refine the walking
5. Integrate the camera and scoring system
6. Teach it to walk again
7. Teach it to walk untethered again
8. Increase the capacity of your batteries
9. Teach it to walk again
10. Teach it to walk untethered again
11. Add a turret and gun(s) – lighter the better
12. Teach it to shoot with some accuracy
13. Teach it to shoot with some accuracy untethered
14. Teach it to walk again
15. Teach it to walk untethered again
16. The night before/day of the event when it all blows up, start at step 1.
17. Discover that your wireless system doesn’t work for squat in the noisy RF environment. Tweak and Tune all day.
18. Finally get everything working the last day/couple matches
19. Burn up a servo (or three)
20. Rinse/Lather/Repeat

After about 100 hours of work, Giger is currently at step 4. But there’s nothing to worry about, ’cause there’s still plenty of time before step 16, where everything blows up at the last minute and you have to start over anyway. Yay robotics!

[ Let's Make Robots ] and [ Trossen ] VIA [ MAKE ]

If you can’t justify buying yourself a humanoid robot to play with, ask yourself this question: what would you do if a little wooden doll was stuck at the end of an obstacle course? Huh? Yeah, that’s right, you’d just stare helplessly as it continued to be little and wooden. If you had a humanoid robot like a Robovie-PC, though, you could send it in to rescue the little wooden doll, earning its undying little wooden gratitude:

This is not at all the motivation for participants to build humanoid robots and send them in after little wooden dolls as part of a rescue robot contest in Japan. The remote controlled bots had to contend with barriers and blocks and a time limit, but after rescuing the doll, it was theirs to do with as they wished.

Don’t ask.

[ Rescue Robot Contest (Translated) ] VIA [ Plastic Pals ] VIA [ Engadget ]

If this little guy looks familiar, it’s because he was designed by Tomotaka Takahashi of Robo Garage, who also designed the Tmsuk T-52 Enryu Rescue Dragon. What, you can’t see the family resemblance? Okay, how about with that little record breaking Evolta robot? ROPID is Takahashi’s latest creation, and it shows: using three gyros (one in each leg plus one in the chest) and a bunch of awfully strong servos linked by belts ROPID can jump and even kinda run:

Technically, it’s not running unless ROPID manages to get both feet off the ground at the same time, and from the videos, it doesn’t look like that happens… Even ASIMO (who is several orders of magnitude larger and more complicated) barely manages to do this. So ROPID is really more of a power walker. But that’s okay, we won’t hold it against him, because he’s just so adorable with those glowy eyes and that cute little mouth. ROPID is a good listener too, able to respond to voice commands. What really sells him, though, is the fact that he emotes so well… Maybe that’s why he’ll be starring in a short film, coming soon to a film festival near you. For real.

[ ROPID @ Robo Garage ] VIA [ Robot Watch (Translated) ]

At the iHobby Expo in Chicago, Robotis was demonstrating a new Balance Sensor Module for their Bioloid humanoid hobby robot. The module contains a gyro or two, and takes control of the robot’s servos, making small adjustments to keep the robot from falling over when its orientation changes.

This is good stuff, to be sure, but it’s not particularly demanding. I’d interested to see how the Balance Sensor Module reacts to something like a running gait, which requires much finer and more rapid adjustment. Or for that matter, if it could cope with a much larger robot kicking it in the chest… If it can manage that, maybe we can expect to see some humanoid robot competitions where most of the action doesn’t come from unintentional faceplants.

[ Robotis Bioloid ] VIA [ Robots Dreams ]

By Chris Scott Barr

The pinnacle of modern civilization comes when man no longer has to get off his lazy rear to do mundane tasks like fetch beer. We’ve seen a bot that can do this before, but was a very specialized one that had no other real functions. You also couldn’t easily make or obtain one of these for yourself. Thankfully you can get your hands on the Robot Jox, which can grab your beer for you.

Sadly, this isn’t some awesome butler bot that is going to go to your kitchen and fetch booze whenever you require (when will we get these?!) but it can use its arms to pick up and carry your favorite beverage by mimicking your own arm movements (you’ll have to be wearing a special set of gloves to do this). It features built-in camera sensors for eyes, 20 degrees of movement and soon it will have modified gripper hands and limb extensions.

This robot friend is going to set you back a good chunk of change, weighing in at $4500. The applications beyond beer fetching are considerable, but I think I’ll hold out for my butler bot.

[ Vstone ] VIA [ Dvice ]

Vstone is presenting the robot world (i.e. us) with a couple new hobby robots, spanning low end (or as low end as hobby robots ever get) to high end (and prohibitively expensive). The more reasonably priced bot, the Robovie-Nano, is 23 centimeters tall, with 15 joints and integrated speakers. It’s about as programmable as you’d expect from a hobby robot of this size, and supports a number of optional accessories like gripper hands. $587 for this little guy seems a little bit steep considering its capabilities, but relative to the cost of other hobby robots in the same class, it’s not too terribly bad.

Meet Robovie-Nano’s bigger brother, who happens not to be named Robovie-Giga, after the jump. (Read more…)