KHR-3HV Humanoid Robot Has Big Feet…

The new Kondo KHR-3HV humaniod robot kit has feet that depart from the popular bathtub design used in older Kondo designs.

You can compare the relative size in this photo. The older bathtub foot is on the left in the package, while the new foot is to the right.

Proportionally, the new feet are larger and not as natural looking - they almost give the robot a circus clown feet look.

That being said, the new robot's expanded footprints should make it easier to align and balance correctly, which will contribute to smoother, more human-like walking and other motions

One curious observation: the new feet have lots of extra holes and servo mounting locations designed in from the git-go.

Kir feet 01

The bottom (sole) of the foot reveals a huge array of holes, many of which are countersunk for use with mounting screws, and two servo mounting patterns. The foot edges have also been designed for better robot walking providing more of a bevel and clearance for the robot to tilt its foot slightly without dragging or tipping while initiating a walk move, much like humans do.

Kir feet 02
The top side of the foot shows the holes, and the unused servo mounting patterns more clearly.

Note that the stock KHR-3HV only uses four small screws and nuts to attach the ankle servo frames to the feet. It’s functional enough, however our huge paws are going to find it difficult, and a little frustrating, to work with those tiny parts. We’re not watchmakers…

Does this indicate that Kondo has a lot of options or add-ons in the works? They had to have something in mind, even if it was only to provide lots of flexibility for future KHR-3HV hackers.

Hopefully there will be some exciting follow-on products that use those extra holes, but we're not going to hold our breath waiting for them to appear.

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Posted by Lem on Jul 4, 2009 in Design, Hardware, Kondo, ROBO-ONE | 0 comments