Then N O W

HUMANOID ROBOTS
b
n my many articles over the years, Ive managed to mention just a few tantalizing tidbits about the progress being made in humanoid robots, but have just categorized that information within the context of the particular article that I was writing. In June 06, I wrote about the development of walking robots in this column, however, humanoid form goes quite a bit beyond simple bipedal walking machines or even the addition of a head as the center of information-gathering sensors. The earliest robots were always anthropomorphic or man formed and the plays and movies from the beginning of last century depicted them in this way. Of course, a human was inside a robot suit so it was much easier to use an actor to give movement to a human-sized
FIGURE 1. Gort the robot and Klaatu the alien.

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bipedal creature that to engineer the complex machinery required for the illusion. Gort from the classic 1951 sci-fi film The Day the Earth Stood Still (DVD available in Nuts & Volts webstore for $14.95; www.nutsvolts.com) was actually Lock Martin, a very tall doorman recruited from Graumans Chinese Theater in Hollywood, CA (see Figure 1). The rubber Gort suit was so uncomfortable that Martin could only stand it for 30 minutes at a time and it was so restrictive to his movements that he could not pick up the actors that he was seen to carry about. Wires and moveable stands were used to support the people out of sight of the camera. As an active scuba diver in the 60s and 70s, I can just imagine how uncomfortable a rubber suit could be after standing in the sun with a wet suit
FIGURE 2. Maria, the robot in Metropolis.

on after a dive. Im not sure if it was any more comfortable than the Maria suit worn by actress Brigitte Helm in the earlier classic movie Metropolis, filmed in 1927 (see Figure 2). Much later, Star Wars producer George Lucas used diminutive actor, Kenny Baker crammed inside the body of R2D2 in 1977 (and all later sequels) to give life to the robot, as mechanisms of the day could not produce the rocking motion and give movement to all of its many functions. Actor Anthony Daniels was similarly stuffed into a gold robot suit not too unlike the Maria costume of a half century earlier to give motion to C-3PO. In peoples minds decades ago, most robots had to look like bipedal humanoids and the only way to animate these robots was to place a human inside a robot suit. The cute little beeping, rolling trashcan-looking R2D2 was the exception to the humanoid appearance.

Why Humanoids?
What is the draw for experimenters to build a humanoid robot rather that a wheeled machine? They are more expensive to construct, especially if the designer uses a pair of legs for propulsion instead of wheels. They are more unstable and can be easily tipped over, either accidentally or on purpose. Reliability is another factor; one bad leg joint or actuator out of many and the robot is out of commission. Ive followed a series of postings on the Seattle Robotics Societys website (www.seattlerobotics.org) entitled Legs not Wheels for over a month.

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There are strong feelings for both types of robots and the reasoning is sound for both camps. If you want to showcase your robotics talents, your biped humanoid robot walking across a table and taking a bow is certainly a great way to add a feather to your hat. Coolness comes up strong as a reason for experimenters to want to build legged robots, especially bipedal robots. They just reek of coolness. Plus, humanoids look like the creatures we are most familiar with us. Another strong point for humanoid robots is the technical challenge required to design and build a humanoid robot. A designer of humanoids just doesnt make two legs cycle one in front of the other. He must take into consideration the center of gravity and balance, natural resonance of the mechanisms involved, foot design, kinematics, synchronizing all of the joints and actuators, hip and upper body position, and a multitude of other factors. The builder must also take into account just where the robot will be used outside, indoors, on a table, in a competition, or all of the above. Statically stable gaits have been the easiest for bipedal robot builders to achieve, though a few experimenters have built running robots. We must remember, however, that many large companies have investigated walking robots as a natural way for a machine to traverse a specific area, and have found out that legs are better for certain tasks, while other applications work better with wheels. General Electric built several large walking robots that ended up with no application, yet Boston Dynamics built the Big Dog robot that just might make it onto the battlefield in the near future.

Mellon University had developed some amazing one-legged walkers, but the very expensive Asimo gave the worlds robot experimenters the unofficial goahead to develop their own creations. Human-sized humanoid robots proved to be quite expensive to develop due to the many DOF (degrees of freedom) or axes of motion required to approximate human leg, body, and arm motions, so small humanoid walkers became very popular. Quadruped and hexapod robots had been the walker of choice for decades among robot experimenters. The availability of numerous types of model aircraft servos as the drive source for each axis of the legs became the final solution for the potential humanoid robot designer. These servos were as cheap as $10-$15 per axis so the transition to a bipedal humanoid from the small table-top wheeled robot was a bit easier.

FIGURE 3. Hondas Asimo.

Humanoid Robots Become Available to Experimenters

It did not take long for the major walking robot kit manufacturers to make the leap from hexapod or quadruped robots to bipedal humanoids. Mark Tilden long known for his work with the Physics Division of the Los Alamos National Laboratory the UK born, ex-Canadian resident is best known for his tiny BEAM (Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, and Mechanics) robots powered by the smallest solar cells and capable of interaction with the environment without even a simple microcontroller. Quite a few of us are familiar with Isaac Asimovs Three Laws of Robotics, but Tilden has come up with his own rules, uniquely suited to his early robot designs and their need to extract power from the environment: 1) A robot must protect its existence at all costs. 2) A robot must obtain and maintain access to its own power source. 3) A robot must continually search for better power sources. Through his work at Los Alamos,

Humanoid Robots Become a Reality

Despite all the movies and the many decades of wishing that true humanoids were among us, it wasnt until Hondas series of almost human-sized robots leading up to Asimo that humanoids actually became a reality (see Figure 3). The company spent uncounted millions of dollars (billions of Yen) in research and development of this amazing robot. Certainly university labs had toyed with the idea and Marc Raibert of Carnegie-

he worked with NASA, JPL Labs, and DARPA to develop energy efficient robots for space and other harsh environments. He formed his own company to sell his very unique creatures and then joined with WowWee Toys to sell his most noteworthy creation, the Robosapiens and its offshoot creations. Robosapiens make an ideal first robot for those interested in humanoid designs. It comes ready to roll right out of the box and is priced as low as $100, with later improved models under $200. The cost is low, not only because of the mass production in Asia but the simplistic mechanical design that makes use of just a few motors to perform many degrees of freedom motion to the arms and legs, much the same as the old Armatron robot arm. Tildens humanoid robot can walk at two different speeds, turn, dance, and has two types of grippers (it reminds me of a robot lobster, in a way). It also has various sound effects (one is a caveman type of speech) and 67 pre-programmed functions.
FIGURE 4. V2 Robosapiens.

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Many Servos Required for a Humanoid

As I mentioned earlier, the advent of the inexpensive yet unique model airplane servo made complex humanoid construction possible for the robot experimenter. Most fully articulated humanoids require 16 to 20 or more servos to approximate many of the human joint actions, both with the legs and the arms. Even at $15 per servo, this amounts to $240-$300 just for the servos. Add a microcontroller, power pack, basic sensors (visual, communications, accelerometers, etc.), and the many complex structural members and you can begin to see why many kits top $1,000. The builder can always make up for some torque deficiencies in a particular servo by applying coil springs around the axis of joints affected by gravity such as arms and legs to force the joint rotation in a direction opposite of the force of gravity. Of course, this takes a bit of practice in selecting, mounting, and loading the spring. Top-of-the-line servos (such as the Bioloid Dynamixel line) start at $44.90 for the AX-12+ that can deliver up to 222 oz. in. of torque, but these beauties are anything but a typical servo. A standard model aircraft servo with similar features will cost almost as much without the feedback to a microcontroller of angular position and velocity, and of the torque applied by the AX-12+. Ive had several conversations with Alex Dirks of CrustCrawler about some of the features of the Dynamixel actuators. The more
FIGURE 6. ROBONOVA kit.

expensive Dynamixel RX-28 and RX-64 smart actuators, costing $200 and $285 respectively, are significantly more sophisticated in their onboard intelligence and torque. For the serious humanoid designer, they are worth the money and are available at CrustCrawler (www. crustcrawler.com) and other SERVO advertisers. Humanoids can be expensive and complex to construct; it really depends on your design and budget limits.

Humanoid Kits
Many experimenters opt to start from scratch, but many types of kits are available. The Hitec ROBONOVA-I was designed as a kit but is also available pre-assembled (see Figure 6). Designed for educators, students, and hobbyists, the $899 ROBONOVA-I can walk, run, do flips and cartwheels, and even dance. It can be assembled in six to eight hours with just a screwdriver. The robot derives its individual joint movements from 16 Hitec HSR-8498HB digital servos designed specifically for this robot. They feature over-voltage and current protection, have tough Karbonite gear trains, and are touted to be easily programmed with the feedback capability. The ROBONOVA-I can be modified with additional servos, optional gyros, accelerometers, speech synthesizers, and even Bluetooth and R/C transmitters and receivers. At a shade under $1,400, the Futaba RBT-1 is a bit more expensive experimenters humanoid robot (see Figure 7). It tips the scales at about 900 grams and is 10 tall, but has 20 small servos, 11 of which are the Futaba RS301CR high torque metal gear servos for the leg movements, and nine lightweight RS302CD servos for the upper body. A three-axis accelerometer system allows the robot to sense motions, falling, etc., and it knows when to pick itself up after a fall. The robots RPU-11 controller contains an ATmega 128 CPU that interfaces with the various robot systems with an RS-485 internal link and an RS-232C interface to talk with an external Windows PC, or through a 2.4 GHz wireless controller. This little guy has a lot of degrees of freedom and should offer the serious experimenter a sophisticated research platform. The third humanoid robot kit that

FIGURE 5. The RS Media robot from WowWee.

Robosapien can be programmed by remote control with up to 84 program steps. The second, more expensive and larger V2 (24 tall) model has a color vision system that recognizes colors and interacts with people, can track objects, and avoid obstacles (see Figure 4). It has true bi-pedal walking with multiple gaits, can lie down and get up, and has fairly articulate hands that can grasp objects with articulated fingers. The latest Robosapien RS Media is an even more advanced robot than the V2 version (see Figure 5).
FIGURE 7. Futaba RBT-1.

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Id like to discuss is the $899 Robotis Bioloid Comprehensive Kit that can be used to construct over 26 robots, including a pretty sophisticated humanoid robot (see Figure 8). What makes this kit so appealing to me is that the kit contains 18 of the Dynamixel AX-12+ smart actuators that total out to over $800 alone if purchased separately. This kit is great for learning humanoid dynamics as the included software, controller, AX-S1 sensor module, battery, and charger, plus the many types of quality industrial plastic structural components allow one to make some amazing things.

David Hansons Humanoids

FIGURE 8. Robotis Bioloid humanoid.

FIGURE 9. Einstein-Hubo combo.

features and subtle muscle movements I would be remiss if I didnt menare extremely difficult to produce, but tion the spectacular lifelike humanoid this is what draws Hanson to the task. robots created by David Hanson. David The Einstein robot head is actuated Hanson has produced a unique style of by 33 servo motors and related linkages, humanoid that very few other robot and requires just 10W of power at 6V to builders have yet to do. The faces of his achieve its full range of expressions. robots mimic the appearance and movePeople have compared his creations to the ments of a real human face. Outside of many animatronic displays at Disneyland a few robotic mannequins produced in and other theme parks. They require many Asia, virtually all humanoid robots still kilowatts of electric power and even have abstract faces and expressions. hidden hydraulic and pneumatic power People have found that realistic sources to operate. The Abraham Lincoln human facial features rendered on exhibit is a great example. Created robotic faces are pretty much creepy. decades ago, it was quite lifelike but had Thats a view I completely reject. We many motors, linkages, and power are naturally attracted to faces and sources under the stage which were fed gestures, says Hanson, president of through Lincolns feet (see Figure 11). Hanson Robotics, Inc. Robots dont Hanson is convinced that the major just have to make the right expression, contributor to the success of his robots is they have to make the right expression the special skin that he has developed. His at precisely the right time, he says. Frubber a patented silicone elastomer Hanson began his interest in realistic whose mechanical properties allow the robot faces when he studied art at the complex facial movements is a foamed Rhode Island School of Design and later platinum-based elastomer that contains received a Ph.D. in Interactive Arts and up to 70 percent air by volume. The Engineering from the University of Texas. control of the size and distribution of the His well-known renderings of Albert Einsteins head applied to a FIGURE 11. Abraham Lincoln animatronic figure. Korean-designed humanoid robot is a bit on the creepy side (see Figure 9). I found his rendering of Sci-Fi writer, Philip K. Dick (see Figure 10) absolutely amazing as it displays many thousands of nuanced, believable facial expressions. Many people steer clear of very realistic human faces on humanoid robots as the facial

open and closed air cells in the Frubber skin is what allows it to move much like human skin. The fact that it can be moved by small servos with little FIGURE 10. force makes it use- Hansons Philip K. Dick robot head. ful for humanoid robot faces. It is so flexible that it can be stretched as much as 900%, though damage may occur beyond 450% stretching. Figure 12 illustrates how Hanson has mimicked human facial expressions with his Frubber-based robot faces. Hanson is working with well-known Japanese robot designer, Tomotaka Takahashi to produce RoboKind, a robot
FIGURE 12. Photo by Chris Buck of Hansons robots facial expressions.

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that will be 14 inches tall with a body designed by Takahashi and a head designed by Hanson. These cartoon-like robots will be able to walk around and offer a range of facial expressions. Biped robots arent that unusual in Japan. There are even soccer matches for them, says Hanson. But our new robot will be the only one capable of complex facial expressions. A limited edition version of the new robot will sell for about $10,000

and a standard model will cost about $3,000. Hanson is also studying many other more efficient power sources for the appendages and facial movements of his humanoids. He feels that humanoids are the ideal robot design to interact with people. As with all my articles, I have only scratched the surface of the many technologies that I discuss. The vast potential of humanoid robots is just beginning. It is you the readers of this magazine who

will forge those steps to finally produce that one humanoid who will be indistinguishable from a human being. Maybe not in our lifetime, but there will be humanoids that can stand beside us and be the robotic equivalent of Turings Test for AI. Meanwhile, go to the various manufacturers such as CrustCrawler, Trossen Robotics, Lynxmotion, or Robotis to see what is already available. Buy a kit or ready-made robot, modify it, and then create your own. Take that giant step. SV

Advertiser Index
Active Robots .............................................3 All Electronics Corp. ..........................31, 46 AP Circuits/e-pcb.com ............................60 AWIT ..........................................................46 CrustCrawler .............................................13 Electronics123 ..........................................31 Floatation Center Art Gallery ..............77 Futurlec .....................................................46 Gears Educational Systems, LLC .............61 Hitec ..........................................................16 Hobby Engineering .................................46 Images Co. ................................................46 IMService ............................................31, 46 Jameco .................................................2, 46 Lorax Works ........................................31, 46 Lynxmotion, Inc. .......................................19 Maxbotix ...................................................46 Maximum Robotics ............................20, 46 Net Media .................................................83 Parallax, Inc. ...............................Back Cover PCB Pool .............................................46, 55 Pololu Robotics & Electronics ..........21, 46 Robotis Co. Ltd. ..........................................7 Robot Power ............................................66 RobotShop, Inc. .................................46, 82 Schmartboard .....................................31, 75 SCON .........................................................31 Solarbotics/HVW .......................................9 SORC ..........................................................60 SPSU ...........................................................17 Technological Arts ...................................46 TORMACH .................................................12 Vantec .......................................................66 Yost Engineering .......................................71

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