Robot: robots

Showing posts with label robots. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

China World Expo

The World’s EXPO held in Shanghai, China, is another place where you can see glimpses of the future, including robotics evolution and developments in artificial intelligence. The robots exhibited have highly specialized and amazing individual skills. Farther down from the France building’s Paris Eiffel Tower exhibit, behind the thick glass walls obscured by hundreds of people wanting a closer look, were numerous humanoids living in the robot exhibit. Literally living - sitting, standing, stretching, moving, sleeping, turning, waving, making eye contact – some would sit a while, rest, get up and then interact with people.

Thousands of people waited in line seven hours to see the Japan
building. The climbing robots are outside on the Japan EXPO
building, climbing up and down all day.

by Humanoido

When I toured China, I suddenly found myself at the World's EXPO, pleasantly surprised by the robotics exhibitions.

The man beside me knew more about robots than I could imagine. He pounded on the window and frantically waved. At first, it seemed a little tongue-in-cheek to think that one of the NAO humanoids on display could respond, and in particular the one he was focused on... But surprisingly, he appeared to attract the attention of one (NAO is an advanced humanoid robot by Aldebaran, a French company).

NAO turned around to face the man, walked over and looked directly at him, eyes to eyes, and waved back! Coincidence or not, it made everyone a believer in its sophistication and life-like talents. These advanced robots can do more things, have more fluid motions and are more human and life-like than one might expect.

At the EXPO’s Japan building, outside on the tall rising skyscraper’s wall, three Japanese humanoid robots gripped the side of the building’s scaffolding structure and relentlessly, effortlessly, slowly climbed their way to the top and then down again. How they managed this skillful process all day, reliably, in about 130 degree sunlight was one of the most impressive displays of humanoid robots and reliable technology to behold. You could actually see their hands and feet reach for holding places and their faces turning, apparently looking around to find the best grip and foothold locations. They wore a kind of athletic jump suit and at first glance it made you wonder who was up there climbing the great wall!

That greeting was just an indication of more great things to come – inside the building was the stuff of the future.

Walking past the three dimensional TV, things only seen in science fiction movies filled the room. If you could pull yourself away from the theater size screen where your hand motions manipulated windows and virtual reality, robots began to make their entrance. On the first stage, a robot moved over to greet you - not taking a single breath during an introductory speech in Mandarin Chinese.

On the theater stage, Toyota’s new personal robotic transport vehicle was impressively driven around. Another highlight was Toyota’s full size humanoid. It walked out onto stage right, raised a violin in hand and played a beautiful melody.

We live in an era with many specialized robots of 2020 – each robot has some particular skill, musical, social, or athletic, for example. It won’t be surprising in the next era to see

these specialties come together.

Seeing the EXPO, it wouldn’t take too much imagination to dream about humanoids walking down the streets of Shanghai, blending in with humans.

The Expo 2010 in Shanghai China was open from May 1 to October 31, 2010 and an estimated 70 million visitors attended.

Friday, February 24, 2017

First Humanoid Robots Index

Sunday, January 15, 2017

JD Humanoid Apps

JD has a big head with cute big eyes that can be programmed for expressions, blinking and winking

JD does a cowboy line dance

This post will suggest a myriad of new real world applications and ideas for JD humanoid robot by EZ-Robot Company. The list will continue to evolve as new ideas are added for proposed functions and organizing takes place.

First, let's examine some of JD's stock motions from work already accomplished when JD is first purchased. The code and sources for these motion functions are available in a variety of locations.

* Dance
* Play piano
* High five
* Headstand
* Pushups
* Gorilla
* Get up back
* Get up front
* Sing
* Walk forward
* Walk Back
* Turn left
* Turn right
* Bird fly
* Sit down
* Stand up from front
* Stand up from back
* Wave
* High Five
* Animate eyes
* Balance on foot

JD humanoid has strong arm grippers powered by a metal geared servo. Upgrades to the grippers with sensors could give the sense of feeling. Clever programming could allow JD to grasp, pick up objects and perform tasks. With the increasing popularity, reliability, simplification, improvement and reduced cost of 3D printers, JD could have more detailed and functional printed hands.

For programming, it will help to understand the existing sensors.
* Battery charge
* Internal temp
* Eye lights - expressions
* Face/ object/ color recognition
* Tracking Face/ object/ color/ glyph
* Voice recognition
* Speech
* Streaming sound/music/song
* Audio effects
* Live streaming video, u c what jd sees

Adding additional sensors will open up new capabilities.
* Touch pressure on grippers
* IR eyes obstacle avoidance
* Light level CaS cell tells day night
* 2nd small coprocessor
* accelerometer
* Compass
* Gyro
* External thermometer
* Ultrasonic eye

Each JD gripper has a back position and side positions to attach hand sensors for a sense of touching, grasping and feeling objects.

After exploring and learning programming for stock motions, adding new motions can be a fun challenge.
* Dance with light weight doll
* Butt scratch duplicated from Robonova
* Kung Fu Series
* Matrix move
* Shake hand
* Small human-like movements
* Roll around
* Run or jog
* JD giant steps, steps up high to walk in debri field
* JD protects himself by shooting at swastica
* go up steps

JD can have a new persona, if programmed. In fact, there are many possible personas.
* JD Roommate, Companion
* JD Gamer
* JD Maid, sweeps floor, dusts, wears apron
* JD Home Helper
* JD Athelete
* JD Entertainer
* JD Therapist, massage arm and hand
* JD Personal Trainer, diet exercise
* JD Personal Assistant
* JD Secretary
* JD Teacher, tai chi
* JD Career Occupations spaceman
* JD Nurse
* JD Artist, painter
* JD Night Watchman, security
* JD Industrial Inspection Agent
* JD Learner, ask questions, remember
* JD Model, poses for cute photos
* JD Actor, Movie Star, takes part in youtube movies
* JD Singer
* JD Tycoon Mogul on Twitter Facebook Internet Email Blogger etc.
* JD with machine robot pets , dog

Various JD personas will likely have many functions. These are some suggestions for JD Rommate Companion.
* Room temp
* Day reminders
* Measure light
* Tv on
* Read News
* Speak list
* Take note memo
* Small Chit Chat
* Recharge station

JD side view shows humanoid posture

For a JD Game persona, JD could play "rock-paper-scissors," the High Low guessing game, and the famous Guess behavior - Monkey Chicken Rooster Dog Cat Snake.

This is a raw list of functions that could be added to JD. Functions may later be sorted and added to a specific persona.
* Remember voice memo
* Take notes, memory logger, mem jogger
* Med scheduler
* Teacher Tai Chi, English, aerobics exercise
* Take my photo
* clock
* Timer
* Sleep, Nap
* Charge station
* Security
* Home Friend
* Home Helper
* Answer net questions data base
* Carry conversation small chit chat
* Hear voice, change to text
* Read a book
* Speak Mandarin & some foreign language words
* Lift weights
* Help u sleep with white noise

Like humanoid Robi, JD could also have pets

PERSONALITY UPGRADE JD 2.0
* Looks @ u when talking to u
* Eyes light up when speaking
* Kick ball
* Soccer goal
* wave flag
* remote tv
* Alarm
* Security passwd
* Speak Pig Latin
* Double size JD
* Weightlifter *display scale *load cell weight
* Girl jd
* Bod Touch sens
* Push recovery
* Gyro
* Better walking, motions etc.

* Wii copy cat
* GPS
* Walk bent knees
* Navigate home
* Elderly care
* Handicap assist
* In Space rocket
* Personalities
* Pure AI

JD is a dance master with added hips and two new servo motors, giving 18 DOF

Accomplishment Ideas
* Find floor bug
* Motion detect
* Earthquake alarm
* Suspended animation wake up in future with message
* Drive its own Mars/Titan buggy
* A projector to help tell stories
* Eye wink
* Walk with cane

Personals
* Body temp
* Batt level
* (Outside temp)
* Remain charge
* Day # Mo Yr
* Time
* Sleep Nap Wink
* Roam around
* Keep company
* Follow map
* Make map
* Scratch feet
* Hand massage
* One eye blink
* Act like dog
* Bird
* Monkey

JD showing what's in the box, and the size of the feet, ideal for sweeping the floor

Dance
* Stock
* Waltz
* Disco
* Butt boogy
* Freestyle
* Line dance

Teacher
* Tai chi flow motion david dorian ross
* Lead aerobics

Personal Trainer
* Personal trainer diet, exercise, aerobics, weightlift

Artist
* Artist paint pic
* Writer print name or slogan
* Writer cursive write

Astronomer
* Observe Moon through telescope
* Take astroimage
* Guide telescope

JD Spaceman
* Position in cockpit
* Push controls
* Pilot jpystick
* Finder alert
* Lightweight JD
* Tell joke
* Laugh #5 echo

JD Therapist
* Give hand, arm, neck massage

Software
* EZ-Builder pc
* EZ-Builder mobi
* EZ-Script
* EZ-Cloud
* Blockly
* RoboScratch
* Auto Positioner
* Servo fine tune

Showing JD's actual box

Additional things to consider
* get tiny props from doll house section
* teach dancing with a female doll
* the superman move
* The eyes can wink and blink
* REMEMBER THOSE cute dog pics? Take still pics of JD in cute poses, like the yoga pose, holding a tiny teddy bear, lay in be read magazine,
* JD your avatar, you see as he sees, he moves as you move
* Transfer JD vision to a helmet for app above
* Not lonely chat app, Yes, JD has excellent ears and full speech recognition capability so we can verbally chat and exchange conversations, as programmed.

Contents of JD in the box

I want to integrate the best chatbot app with JD so he will be a good companion and make sure people are not lonely.
* Hold objects. I think, IMO, the metal gear servos are the strong point in JD's body. His hands may need pressure sensors. In place of these sensors, a table of known objects to hold, grasp, turn, and set can replace the sensor. It's always amazing when clever programming can replace hardware sensors.
* Recharge station. Initially he will ask to be recharged to keep himself alive, but we dream of the day when he is autonomous in recharging in his own power regeneration bed.
* His own room. I envision developing his own room, cove, like batman's cave, or superman's fortress of solitude.
* JD The Nurse, I also think he can help with pill taking schedules, keeping track of meds, and provide information as needed.
* He might be connected to the internet to answer questions using the same Syri technology as a phone. So you can ask about certain medications and their side effects or any topic you want.
* I made more advances in the plan and designs for JD the Roommate. I want him to accompany me with chit chat, diddle with the TV, and be a couch potato as needed.
* JD DIfferent personas, one is the couch potato, rests all the time, want to watch tv with you, asks to eat potato chips and craves diet coke
* JD Massage Therapist. Thing is, it's up to me to develop JD's roommate persona and functions. Given the weight of JD and the great strength of his hands, I think he can give a nice massage on the hands, arms, or neck. This will be comforting as a home helper or a kind of therapist. It will certainly help me. I can tell you, if I had an arm massage, it would help take the focus off the ear pain. That's worth its weight in gold to me.
* JD Evolution, evolves. Rommate, therapist, home helper. Project evolution
* JD could have his eye camera view on an internet cam

JD is also capable of creature morphing when using the extras kit. Only the feet are recognizable.

NOTES quote from Make review
The EZ-B v4 Robot Controller includes 24 digital I/O ports and 8 analog input ports, all with 3-pin servo (GND-PWR-SIGNAL) configuration. There are also 3 UARTs ports, 3 i2c ports, and a dedicated camera port. You connect to the controller over WiFi. Power, Six came with a 1300mAH 7.4V LiPo battery and included a balance charger. The system has a battery monitor that automatically prevents over-discharging. When the battery gets low, Six announces that its battery needs charging and stops responding to commands. The power system works well, though I’d have preferred a charging port to the short cable protruding from the robot shell.

Worth noting is that the PWR pins on the digital outputs of the EZ-B v4 are battery voltage. This provides full power to the servos. If you want to run a 5V device, for example an ultrasonic sensor, you will need to regulate the voltage separately. However, sensors you buy through the EZ-Robots store include an on-board regulator, as well as a nice molded plastic body with Clip’n’Play connectors.

Six’s Heavy Duty servos have metal gears and ball bearings. Despite this my loaner Six experienced three servo burn-outs while I was evaluating it. According to the EZ-Robot product manager, they are aware of the issue. The few customers that have contacted them about servo problems have been shipped replacements immediately. So I do have a slight concern that there might be a quality issue with these servos, but at least EZ-Robot’s customer service is being very responsive.

Actions and Frames, One of the controls in the example Six project is AutoPosition. AutoPosition lets you move Six forward, backwards, left or right with your keyboard arrow keys. A set of pre-defined actions like ‘Fast-Forward’, ‘Strafe Right’, ‘Wave’, ‘Attack’, and a collection of cool dance moves provide more options and give Six a lot of personality.

Each action consists of a set of frames. For example there are four frames named Walk 1, 2, 3, and 4, each of which sets Six’s legs into certain positions. The Forward action cycles through those frames in order from 1 to 4. The Reverse action cycles through the same four frames, only backwards from 4 to 1. You can easily create you own frames and link them together into an action. Or you can custom script movements for an action using EZ-Script.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

1st Humanoid Robots Web Site

THE FIRST HUMANOID ROBOTS WEB SITE
It's a humorous story. Humanoido created the current Humanoid Robots web site and while doing a Google search, a web site came up with the exact same name. Not only the same name, but it appeared to have wording that copied the new site! Who copied the web site in exact detail? This was very disconcerting until closer inspection revealed some interesting facts. The name of the creator was Humanoido. Who could have the exact same name?

Actually, this web site was the first one created February, in the year 2007 by Humanoido, but later abandoned, probably because of a lost password.

http://humanoidlabs.blogspot.tw/

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Meet Pepper

Pepper working at a restaurant at Taipei 101 in Taiwan. Photo by Humanoido

Meeting Pepper by Humanoido
I met Pepper a few days ago in Taiwan when he was working for the restaurant at Taipei 101. Pepper is a humanoid robot with the ability to read emotion, move, use face, hand and arm gestures, listen and speak.

Pepper's robot hands - fully articulated

Kiosk humanoid robots are now working all over in large futuristic cities. Taipei is no exception. However, Pepper is at the top of its line in terms of functions, level of features, and sophistication. Aldebaran, the manufacturing company, says it's designed to be kind, endearing, and surprising. Aldebaran claims they designed Pepper to be a genuine day-to-day companion, whose number one quality is his ability to perceive emotions. Pepper is the first humanoid robot capable of recognizing the principal human emotions and adapting his behavior to the mood. Pepper is already claiming jobs: working at 140 Softbank mobile stores in Japan and is adopted in some Japanese homes according to the manufacturers web site.

Pepper is a very articulated and expressive humanoid robot

What is the cost of Pepper? According to the web site, base price is 198,000 Japanese yen, basic plan 14,800 yen × 36 months payment installments and a Pepper insurance pack is 9,800 yen x 36 months payment installments.

https://www.ald.softbankrobotics.com/en/Launch_Sales_of_Pepper

The eyes work very well for expressions and tracking. Pepper has the most realistic motions and movements in being expressive with face expressions and body positions. It appears real and alive. I like Pepper the most in the way it treats me as its number one priority. It makes eye contact with me, holds that attention faithfully, talks directly to me, and does not loose focus with me in a sea of 10,000 pushing and shoving people and kids taunting him. I remained its number one focus. That alone is an amazing accomplishment. Pepper is awesome!

The future of an expanded Pepper could be more functional. Given its detailed functional hands and arms, by adding a little more programming AI and brain, I believe it could help prepare breakfast in the kitchen, and perform other household chores such as collect and do the clothes wash, hang up the wash, collect/ fold/ and put away dried clothes and towels, and with further programming and attachments, vacuum the floor, be a home conversationalist, etc. If it could also follow me around and control the TV, Phone, Internet, and be an intelligence like Apple's mobile SIRI to do what I ask, then I want one.

Humanoid helpers are the long term dream. A robot to follow me around when shopping and carry my bags would be super helpful. It could also give me advice on product reviews and which items are best for purchase. In the night when charging, it could be by my side and help check phone messages, turn the lights on and off, and revise my wake alarm based on my ability to sleep or not sleep. If I ask for a Tylenol pain killer and a cup of water, Pepper should help. If I ask what is the latest Presidential news, it should tell me. Pepper has working fingers, hands, arms. It should give me a massage on the neck, arm or back when I don't feel good. Pepper should know how to lower a person's stress and help change a bad mood into good, by having a calming positive influence. Such a companion could carry on a conversation that is not cynical, condescending, or negative.

In continuing the wish list, if this humanoid had legs instead of wheels, it could take the elevator to main floor and collect my postal mail. I need a robot like Pepper to do useful things to help me in my daily life, follow me around and translate between English and Chinese. It could read the posted Chinese notices in English. It needs to be street smart, get in and out of taxis, walk steps, basically follow me around outside and inside. If I have a question to be answered by internet like google, Pepper should do that too. All in all, robotics is on the verge of something truly wonderful. Just add a little more capability and our home helpers will have arrived!

https://www.ald.softbankrobotics.com/en/cool-robots/pepper

Taipei 101 (Chinese: 臺北101 / 台北101) – stylized as TAIPEI 101 and formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center – is a landmark supertall skyscraper in Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan. The building was officially classified as the world's tallest in 2004, and remained such until the completion of Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2009. In 2011, the building was awarded the LEED platinum certification, the highest award according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, and became the tallest and largest green building in the world.It has the fastest elevator going from the 5th floor to the 87th in 49 to 53 seconds. (Source Wiki)

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Humanoid Robots - Portal Gate

a division of the popular Big Brain and Space1

This site supports popular past, present and custom built humanoid robots. Posts with the latest information will continue to appear here and have main index links.

Robot humanoid and human cooperation

First up we have the current JD humanoid Revolution from EZ-Robots, a robotics manufacturing company based in Canada. Next, Isobot and Robonova balance the menu. Finally a custom built humanoid by Humanoido. The sum of these robots in various configurations have a massive following with tens of thousands of users.

We collect useful information at this portal gate - a focal point for support, resources, useful project ideas, and fantastic revelations! Send comments, suggestions and replies here.

The Big Brain is a massive 240,000 processors humanoid brain designed and built for vast robot intelligence. Space1 is a private industry space tourism venture, with humanoid presence, to take you into space via a Safety Rocket.

Humanoid Robots
Humanoid Robots Home Page
http://humanoidslabs.blogspot.tw/
JD Revolution Index
http://humanoidslabs.blogspot.tw/p/blog-page.html
Robonova Index
http://humanoidslabs.blogspot.tw/p/blog-page_20.html
Isobot Index
http://humanoidslabs.blogspot.tw/p/isobot.html
Contact
http://humanoidslabs.blogspot.tw/p/blog-page_53.html

Partners in Robotics
NREF National Robotics Education Foundation
Tom Atwood, Executive Director
http://www.the-nref.org/