My seven species of robot Dennis Hong

so the first robots talk about is called

Strider it stands for a self-excited try

Peter dynamic experimental robot it’s a

robot that has three legs which is

inspired by nature but have you seen

anything in nature and an animal that

has three legs

probably not so why I do I call this a

biologically inspired robot how would it

work but before that let’s look at pop

culture so you know HG Wells world the

world’s novel a movie and what you see

over here is a very popular video game

and and these are fiction they describe

these alien creatures and robots that

have three legs that terrorize earth but

my robot Strider does not move like this

so this is an actual dynamic simulation

animation it’s going to show you how the

robot works it flips this body 180

degrees its swings its legs between the

two legs and catches the fall so that’s

how it walks but when you look at us

human being bipedal walking what you’re

doing is you’re not really using a

muscle to lift your leg and do like and

walk like a robot right what you’re

doing is you really swing your leg and

catch the ball stand up again swing your

leg and cast a fall you’re using your

built-in dynamics the physics of your

body just like a pendulum we call that

the concept of passive dynamic

locomotion what you’re doing is when you

stand up potential energy to kinetic

energy potential energy killing energy

and it’s a constantly falling process so

even though there’s nothing in nature

that looks like this really we’re

inspired by biology and applying the

principles of walking to this robot thus

is a biologically inspired robot what

you see over here this is what we want

to do next we want to fold up the legs

and shoot it up for long-range motion

and it deploys legs it looks almost like

Star Wars when it lands it absorbs the

shock and starts walking what you see

over here this yellow thing this is not

a death ray this is a just to show you

that if you have cameras of different

type of sensors because it is tall it’s

1.8 meters tall you can see over

obstacles and bushes and those kind of

things so we have two prototypes the

first version in the back that’s Strider

one the one in the front the smaller

Strider - the problem that we had with

Strider one is was just too heavy in the

body we had sown

mortars you know aligning the joints and

those kind of things so we decided to

synthesize a mechanical mechanism so I

can get rid of all the motors and with a

single motor we can coordinate all the

motions this be kind of a solution to a

problem instead of using mechatronics so

with this now the top part is are light

enough so it’s walked in our lab this is

our very first successful step it’s

still not perfected it Coffee falls down

so we still have a lot of work to do the

second robot I want to talk about is

called impasse it stands for intelligent

mobility platform with actuated spoke

system so it’s a wheel leg hybrid robot

so think of a rimless wheel or a spoke

wheel but the spokes individually move

in and out of the hub so it’s a wheel

leg hybrid we’re literally reinventing

the wheel here let me show how it

demonstrate how it works so in this

video we’re using an approach called a

reactive approach just simply using the

tactile sensors on the feet it’s trying

to walk over a changing terrain a soft

terrain where it then pushes down a

changes and just by the tactile

information it successfully crosses over

these type of train but when it

encounters a very extreme terrain in

this case this obstacle is more than

three times at the height of the robot

then it switches to a deliberate mode

where it uses a laser rangefinder and

camera systems to identify the obstacle

on the sides and it plans carefully

plans the motion of the spokes and

coordinates it so that it can show this

kind of very very impressive mobility

you probably haven’t seen anything like

this out there this is a very high

mobility robot that we developed called

impasse ah is that cool ah when you

drive your car when you steer your car

you use a method called akmed steering

yuuna for the front wheels rotate like

this for both of the small you know

wheeled robot they use a method called

differential stirring where the left and

right wheels turn the opposite direction

for impasse because of many many

different types of motion for example in

this case even the left and right wheel

is connected with a single axle rotating

same angular velocity we just simply

change the length of the scope affected

diameter and then you get turned to left

but to right so these are just some

examples of the neat things that we can

do with impasse this robot is called

climber cable suspended limp intelligent

matching behavior robot so I’ve been

talking to a lot of NASA JPL scientists

at JPL they’re famous for the Mars

rovers and decide this geologists always

tells me that the real interesting

science the science recites are always

at the cliffs but the recurrent Rovers

cannot get there so inspired by that we

want to build a robot that can climb

instructor cliff environment so this is

climber so what it does it has three

legs it probably can’t it’s difficult to

see but has a winch and a cable on the

top I try to figure out the best place

to put its foot and then once it figures

that out in real time it calculates the

force distribution how much force it

needs to exert to the surface so it

doesn’t tip and doesn’t slip once it

stabilizes that lifts a foot and then

with the winch we can climb up these

kind of fun also for search on rescue

applications as well five years ago

actually worked at NASA JPL during the

summer as a faculty fellow and they

already had a tour of a six-legged robot

car a lemur so this is actually based on

that this robot is called Mars multi

appendage robotic system so it’s a

hexapod robot we developed our adaptive

gait planner we actually have a very

interesting payload on there the

students like to have fun and here you

can see that it’s walking over

unstructured rain it’s trying to walk on

the coastal plain match area but

depending on the moisture content

for the size of the grain size of the

sand the foots soil sink each model

changes so it tries to adapt its gait to

successfully cross over these kind of

things it also does some fun stuff as

can imagine we get so many visitors

visiting our labs so when the visitors

come Mars walks up to the computer

starts typing hello my name is Mars

welcome to Ramallah the ROI some

mechanisms lavatory at Virginia Tech

this robot is a ameba robot now we don’t

have enough time to go into technical

details I’ll just show you some of the

experiments so this is all over the

early feasibility experience we store

potential energy to the elastic skin to

make it move or use active tension

course when they can move forward and

backward

it’s called chimera we also have been

working with some scientists and

engineers from UPenn to come up with a

chemically actuated version of this vive

robot we do something to something and

just like magic it moves the ball this

robot is a very recent projects called

Raphael robotic air powered hand with

elastic ligaments there are a lot of

really neat very good robotic hands out

there in the market the problem is

they’re just too expensive tens of

thousands of dollars so for prosthesis

application is probably not too

practical because it’s not affordable we

want to go a tackle this problem in a

very different direction instead of

using electrical motors

electromechanical actuators we’re using

compressed air we developed these novel

actuators for the joints so it’s

compliant you can actually change the

force simply just changing the air

pressure and it can actually crush an

empty soda can it can pick up very

delicate objects like a raw egg or in

this case a light bulb the best part it

took only $200 to make the first

prototype this robot is actually a

family of snake robots that we called

hydras hyper degrees-of-freedom robotic

articulated server time this is a robot

that can climb structures this is a

hydras arm it’s a total degrees of

freedom robotic arm but the cool part is

the user interface the cable over there

that’s the optical fiber and this

student probably the first time using it

but you can articulate it in many

different ways so for example in the

Iraq

you know the war zone there’s roadside

bombs currently send this autonomous

remotely controlled

with our arm it takes really a lot of

time and expensive to train the operator

to operate this complex arm in this case

it’s very intuitive this student

probably first I’m using it very complex

manipulation task picking up objects and

doing manipulation just like that very

intuitive now this robot is currently

our star robot we actually have a fan

club for the robot Darwin dynamic and

performing robot with intelligence as

you know we’re very interested in

humanoid robot human walking so we

decided to build a small human robot

this is at 2 in 2004 at that time this

is something really really revolutionary

this was more of a feasibility study

what kind of motors should use is it

even possible what kind of control

should he do so this does not have any

sensors so it’s an open-loop control and

for those who probably know if you don’t

have any sensors and there’s any

disturbances you know what happens so

based on that success in the following

year we did the proper mechanical design

starting from kinematics and thus Darwin

1 was born in 2005 it stands up it walks

very impressive however still as you can

see it has a cord umbilical cord so

you’re still using external power source

and our external computation so in 2006

now it’s really time to have fun

let’s give it intelligence we give all

the computing power needs 1.5 g yards

pin 2mm chip too far our cameras the

rate gyros accelerometers force torque

sensor on the foot beef in polymer

batteries and now Darwin to is

completely autonomous it is not remote

controlled there’s no feathers

it looks around searches for the ball

looks around searches for the ball and

it tries to play a game of soccer

autonomously artificial intelligence

let’s see how it does this was our very

first trial and so there is actually a

competition called Robo Club I don’t

know how many of you heard about a

Robocop it’s in a international

autonomous robot soccer competition and

the goal of Robocop the officer goal is

by the year 2050 we want to have

full-sized autonomous humanoid robots

play soccer against the

human ruled Cup champions and win it’s a

true offshore goal it’s a very ambitious

goal but we truly believe that we can do

it so this is a last year in China we

were the very first team in the United

States that qualified in the humilate

RoboCup competition this is this year

and this was in Austria you guys see the

action of three against three completely

autonomous Hey yes the robots back and

they play a team play amongst themselves

it’s very impressive really a research

event package in a more exciting in a

competition event what you see over here

this is the beautiful Louis Vuitton Cup

trophy so this for the best humanoid and

you’ll like to bring this for the very

first time to the United States next

year so wish us luck

thank you Darwin also has a lot of other

talents last year it actually conducted

the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra for the

the holiday concert this is the next

generation robot Darwin for much smarter

faster stronger and it’s trying to show

off its ability my macho I’m strong

alright I can also do some Jackie Chan

motion you know martial art movements it

walks away so this is darling for you

again you’ll be able to see in the lobby

we truly believe this is going to be the

very first running human robot in the

United States so it’s stay tuned alright

so I showed you some of our exciting

robotics work so what what’s the secret

of our success where we come up with

these ideas how do we develop these kind

of ideas we have a fully autonomous

vehicle that can drive in the urban

environment we won half a million

dollars in dart bourbon challenge we

also have the rules very first vehicle

that can be driven by the blind called

the blind driver challenge very exciting

and many many other robots project I

want to talk about these are just awards

that won in 2007 fall from robots

competition as those kind of things so

really have five secrets first is where

do we get inspiration where to get this

a spark of imagination this is true

story my personal story at night when I

go to bed three four a.m. in the morning

I lie down close my eyes and I see these

lines and circles and different shapes

floating around and they

assemblé and they form different

mechanisms anyway oh this is cool so

right next to my bed I keep a notebook a

journal with a special pen that has a

light on it LED light because I don’t

want to turn on the light and wake up my

wife

so why I say this i scribble everything

down draw things and I go to bed every

day in the morning the first thing I do

before my first cup of coffee before my

brush my teeth I open my notebook many

times it’s empty sometimes I have

something there if something that

sometimes is junk but most of the time I

can’t even read my handwriting it’s a 4

a.m. in the morning what do you expect

right so I need to decipher what I wrote

but sometimes I see this ingenious idea

in there and I have this irika moment I

directly run to my home office sit in my

computer I type into ideas and sketch

things out and I keep a database of

ideas so when we have this call for

proposals I try to find a match between

my potential ideas and the problem if

there’s a match we write a research

proposal get the research funding in and

that’s how we start our research

programs but just as far imagination is

not good enough how do we develop these

kind of ideas at our lab Romola the

robots of mechanisms laboratory we have

this fantastic brainstorming session so

we gather around we discuss about

problems and social problems and talk

about it but we before we start we set

this Golden Rule the rule is nobody

criticizes anybody’s ideas nobody

criticizes any opinion this is important

because many times students they fear

they feel uncomfortable how other might

think about their opinions and thoughts

so once you do this it is amazing how

the students open up they have this

wacky cool crazy brilliant ideas and the

whole room is just electrified with

creative energy and this is how we

develop our ideas well we’re running out

of time one more thing I want to talk

about is you know just a spark of idea

and developments not good enough there

was a great TED moment I think was Sir

Ken Robinson was it he gave a talk about

how education and school kills

creativity well actually there’s two

sides to the story so there’s only so

much one can do with just ingenious

ideas and creativity and good

engineering intuition if you want to go

beyond the tinkering if you want to go

beyond the hobbyist

products and really tackle the the grand

challenges of Robotics through rigorous

research we need more than that this is

where school comes in Batman fight

against bad guys he has this utility

belt he has this grappling hook has all

difficult of gadgets for us Rhodes’s

engineers on scientists these tools

these are the courses and classes you

take in class math differential

equations I have linear algebra science

physics even nowadays chemistry and

biology as you’ve seen these are all the

tools that we need so the more tools you

have for Batman more effective in

fighting the bad guys for us more tools

to attack these kind of big problems so

education very important also it’s not

about that only about that you also have

to work really really hard so I always

tell my students work smart then work

hard this picture in the back this is a

3 a.m. in the morning I guarantee if you

come to our lab 3 4 a.m. they we have

students working there not because I

tell them to because we’re having too

much fun which leads to the last topic

do not forget to have fun that’s really

a secret of our success we’re having too

much fun I truly believe that highest

product it comes in when you’re having

fun and that’s what we’re doing and

there you go thank you so much

you