Aibo is a dog robot by Sony. More details on my Aibo page. Its a very sophisticated robot. It can not only provide entertainment, but is a great tool for geeks too, because it can be programmed using C++ see details. Its also used in robocup for the 4 legged soccer robot league.
This is my first robot using lego's mindstorm robot kit. This is a four wheel robot. It drives using two motors. It also realises obstacles using its tancticles. It has 2 touch sensor to realise which tancticle was pressed. It also has a light sensor for it to realise what colors it is passing over. I have programmed it using legos api and the lejos firm ware. This robot move around the home like a mouse, turning away from obstacles and moves on!
Blue Nose is the Light Sensor
Yellow Tancticles push the touch sensors
The front and reer tires are turned by motors.
This is a smart arm. It can look for specific colored objects bend the arm down open its claws, grip the object and pick it up. For example it can pick all the black pieces and put it in a bucket. This arm can rotate to look for objects all around it. The blue sensor helps it to detect colors. The two touch sensors help it to detect when the grip is tight and when the arm has risen to full height. One motor is used to raise or lower the arm. The other motor is used to rotate the robot arm to search for objects all around it. There is a complex sequence of gears which allow the claw to close once the arm is beant down to the maximum. My wife and I spent a few days to built it. Ofcourse I do the programming for it.
First picture shows that the arm is bent down to the maximum and the claws are open.
Second picture shows that the object has been captured and the arm is rising.
Here is a simple test programme made in java (lejos), which is developed using the behaviur model. The ArmTest class is the arbitrator and ArmUp and ArmDown are the 2 different behaviours. Here is the source code.
This robot is a simple learning robot, which you can lure to a destination by the black and blue card. When it makes a few random moves you can pass the black card under its nose (nose is the light sensor), to tell it that the last moves were good, repeat them. If you pass the blue card it tells the robot that the last moves were bad, so undo them. By this simple luring, (encourage and discourage) technique one can guide it to a desired location.
Brain.java is the lejos source code for this learning robot. I have commented out the blue card event and instead used the run button to signify a discourage. Black card is used for encouraging and the run button is used for discouraging. Depending on the illumination you may need to vary the light sensitivity value range to detect a black card.
This is a contest between 2 simulated humanoid robots. The objective is to throw the opponent on the floor. Believe me its not easy at all! There are 21 degrees of freedom in this robot. I have discovered that human walking is an extremely complicated process. You make the wrong move, and you fall. The simulator is freely available at
cyberbotics.com .and you can join the Judo contest by registering. The simulator is based on the Open Dynamics Engine (ODE)The humanoid robot is based on Sony's humanoid robot. Its a great way to play with a humanoid robot for free when the real one's cost atleast between $50,000 and $100,000! This site has content about the robot who originally worked on it.
Here is an example controller of the robot. Judoka1.java (from the samples of the simulator).
I am also working on an open source Motion Tool for Webots which generates XML based motions.
Here is a snap of Asimo at the Robocup American Open (the guy in the blue shirt is me). Asimo is the worlds smartest humanoid (this is what Honda claims). In this picture Asimo is giving a demo of climbing a few stairs to an audience of few hundred people.
My new Bi-Pedal Toddler Robot. Click the link to read its details. It consists of 2 servo motors and basic stamp microcontroller. It can also hook up to a PC via serial interface and using Java Communication API.
This is my 4 legged robot pet robot Guru. It has 9 degree of freedom (2 in each leg and 1 for the head). Its based on the basic stamp microcontroller and actuated by Fatuba servos. Its powered by 6 pack NiCd batteries used for toy racing cars. It communicates to the PC via serial port.
