Topic - ROBOTICS
My self with Dr. Prahlad Vadakkepat- Similian 1.0 - Slider (snake like motion) - Weight 400g
- QUL 1.4- 4 legged walker with waist rotation.
- Biomorphs- Biomorphs are artificial, autonomous mechanical devices built from a minimalist and biological approach. These 'creatures' thrive on 'chaotic reaction' and can survive in highly dynamic environments, virtually needing no human intervention. They also exhibit adaptive, emergent behaviour and competent strategies normally impossible to replicate using conventional digital methods. Not the least to say that these biomorphs work without microprocessors, i.e., no human instructions whatsoever.
- Spoke Wheel Walker- The WHEELER robot is a mobile robot with four rotating spoke wheels with two of the spoke wheels mounted on an extended arm each. The WHEELER robot is developed for the purpose for mechanical analysis of locomotion in terms of negotiating uneven terrain. The robot is capable of overcoming low height obstacle and moving through grass, rocky surface and even stairs of appropriate height. By alternating the two extend arms mounted in the front at a predefined sequence, the robot is able to effectively move along uneven surface, crank over low obstacles and climb upwards or downward stairs. The robot is suitable for application for fast locomotion over uneven terrain.
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Humanoids
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Two kinds of humanoid Robots
- Manus
- Genus
These robots are capable of walking on rough terrains and to climb steps. The robots are equipped with a CMOS vision camera (to track objects), an IR sensor (to avoid obstacles), a digital compass (to keep track of the navigational direction), a tilt sensor (to keep the body steady) and force sensors under the foot (for force feedback). The gait control and sensor fusion are done on two DSP boards. The embedded vision module developed is being modified to fit on to the humanoid.
Manus
With a height of 46 cm and a weight of only 2 kg, the Manus is small in size but it has a sophisticated overall mechanical structure. Manus has 17 degrees of freedom (DOF); there are 17 joints powered by motors which must be controlled simultaneously for the robot to even stand up (if un-powered, the structure simply crumples into a heap just like how a bicycle chain would). In order to realize a natural gait, the joint design of the robot is modeled on the structure of the human body, with each 6-DOF leg enabling the robot to imitate most of the human walking motions. The robot senses its environment through a combination of eight force sensors, one tilt sensor, an IR sensor, a digital compass and a video camera. To coordinate its sensory information and walking, the robot uses a two-layered control system. The high-level control layer gathers and processes the information from the sensors, decides on the necessary walking motions and directions, and sends commands to the low-level controller. The low-level control then processes inputs from the tilt and force sensors, and realizes the walking motions and any special motions such as kicking a ball
Genus
With 22 DOF, GeNUS is able to closely simulate the locomotion of a human. The fusion of sensors provides valuable information about the environment to 2 Digital Signal Processors (DSP). Based on the collected information, the DSPs then determine the appropriate actions to be taken. Besides being aimed at performing efficiently in a soccer playing environment, it also serves as a platform for var
ious research purposes. GeNUS has a total of 22 DOF. It has 6 on each leg, 3 at the hip, 1 at the knee and 2 at the ankle. GeNUS, encompasses 22 actuators, 2 DSPs for decision making, a tilt sensor and a vision sensor for sensing, and a Wi-Fi module for communication between robots.Visual information is obtained from a vision sensor mounted on the head. A digital compass allows GeNUS to track its orientation in a soccer field. The on board WIFI module allows GeNUS to communicate with its fellow teammates. Developed in 2006, GENUS is an autonomous humanoid robot developed using technologies used in MANUS; GENUS can be seen as an improvised version of MANUS. GENUS is a well-package compact design humanoid robot which comprises of additional joints in the body which allow the robot to have great flexibilities when performing task. GENUS is able autonomously play soccer where the robot can act as a striker or a goalkeeper. As striker, GENUS is capable of locating the ball, moving at fast pace to the ball and aiming into the direction of the opponent’s goal. If the robot is tackle and fell, it is able to recover itself. As a goalkeeper, GENUS can do diving save when necessary and similarly recover back into an upright position after the save. In additional GENUS is also able to pick up objects, balance on a single leg and dance. GENUS uses an open architecture software platform where sensor fusion, trajectory planning, gait generation, intelligence control, genetic algorithm and dynamics walking studies are conducted.
Soccer Robot
The robot soccer system consists of 5 bi-wheel type robots with RF receiver, a host computer and RF-transmitters. The robots receive two parameters (right and left wheel velocities) via the RF-receivers. The host computer uses Visual C++ as its programming platform. The robot soccer system is associated with cooperation, decision-making, planning, modeling, learning, robot architecture, vision tracking algorithm, sensing, communication, and so forth. In this system each of the robots has its own driving mechanism, communication part and CPU board. The computational part controls the robot’s velocity according to the command data received from the host computer. All calculations on vision data processing, strategies, and position control of the robots are done in the host computer.
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With the research students of NUS*********************************************************************************
Disclaimer-Details and some relevent photos are Compiled from - http://www.vadakkepat.com/
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