Keeping your robot from getting sea-sick… (Video)
Did you ever go out on a rough, choppy sea in a small boat and notice how easy it is to get disoriented and sea sick if you can’t focus on a visual horizon? We have, quite a few times, and turned green in the process. The problem seems to be that our brain needs some point of reference. Normally sensory organs in our inner ears serve the need very effectively giving our brain the feedback it needs to maintain our vestibular (balance) system. But, bouncing up and down (and back and forth) in a small boat or airplane, our inner ears aren’t of much use.
At that point we can frequently maintain our sense of balance by looking at the distant horizon, like the edge of the ocean around us. It provides a stable point of reference that our brain can latch on to and keep us from getting totally disoriented, and nauseated.
In a similar fashion, humanoid robots often have small gyroscopes installed, serving much the same function as the human being’s inner ear organs. Could this be enhanced, or perhaps totally eliminated, by providing the robot with visual cues telling “which way is up?” It turns out that it’s much simplier than you might imagine.
Robot researchers from the IAS-Lab at the University of Padua have done extensive work outfitting humanoid robots, including the Kondo KHR-1HV, with ominidirectional head cameras and software that allows the robots to walk across uneven terrain without losing their balance. They can even walk across a see-saw without toppling over.
Here’s a video clip showing the robots performance:
According to the researchers:
The robot stabilizes its walk knowing the slope of its trunk. Pitch and roll angles are provided using only the omnidirectional sensor. No gyroscope or accelerometer are used. In the video above there is no stabilization; instead in the video below the robot keeps its trunk parallel to the vertical direction.
The robot is a Kondo KHR-1HV. Code is writing using C++, OpenCV and gtkmm.
Matteo, Computer Science & Information Engineering, University of Padua.
IAS-Lab - Universita degli Studi di Padova.
IT+Robotics srl, Spin-off dell'Universita degli Studi di Padova
IT+Robotics - Humanoid Robots - http://www.it-robotics.it/index.php?o...
IT+Robotics - Omnidirectional Vision - http://www.it-robotics.it/index.php?o...
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