Humanoid (Kid Size)

Project	Humanoid (Kid Size)
Researcher	Dr.Thavida Maneewarn, Research Department, Institute of Field Robotics (FIBO)
Funding	King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi Seagate Technology (Thailand) Ltd. Asian Honda Motor Co., Ltd Advanced Info Service Plc. Unocal Thailand, Ltd.
Published Year	2000 – Present
Keyword	Humanoid Robot

Abstract

“Som Jook”, the two-legged human-size

“Som Jook”, the two-legged, human-size robot developed in 2000, is the first and only humanoid robot in Thailand that is in the same size as a human (but it only has the lower part, only the legs), with a weight over 50 kilograms. Institute of Field Robotics (FIBO) created it to study on a robot’s walking with 12 degrees of freedom. Som Jook has been progressively developed. It can walk and stand without any help. However, parts contributed to its weight and the heavy weight slowed down the advancement. The researcher decided to change to a small humanoid robot and will apply the knowledge gained from this smaller robot to continue the development of Som Jook.

Small Bipedal Robot Prototype

In 2003, the researcher designed the first small bipedal humanoid robot that is 50 centimeters tall and has approximately 2 kilograms in weight, and 14 degrees of freedom. To lighten the weight of the robot, it was built from nylon and aluminum alloys. The motor is an R / C servomotor like the one used in a control airplane. The robot is equipped with two types of sensors – 16 pressure sensors used to measure the force on both feet of the robot and a 3-axis tilt sensor.

Jai Dee: Small Bipedal Robot

In 2005, there is a RoboCup, an annual international robotics competition, and the annual robot football world cup for humanoid robots. “Jai dee”, our second humanoid robot from batch 2 had been built at that time. In the RoboCup Soccer (Humanoid league) competition in 2005, Jai Dee participated for the first time and qualified as 16 teams for finals. It had greatly improved and won the 3rd runner-up in Bremen. Jai Dee is a small humanoid robot weighing 3.3 kilograms with 38 centimeters in height. It can walk at 2 meters per minute, avoid obstacles, and approach the ball to kick it. It can get up by itself when falling down and accelerate to the speed of 1 meter/minute.

 “Jeed” and “Kalamae”: Small Bipedal Robot

“Jeed” and ” Kalamae” are the 3rd batch humanoid robot developed by FIBO in 2007. These robots have high mobility and impact resistance that are features suitable for robot football competitions. The two robots have the ability to walk while maintaining their balance. Thus, they are hard to fall and can walk with a speed of 15 meter/minute.

Por Dee: Small Bipedal Robot

Robots in the 4th generation had been improved for better performance.

Vision System: the researcher replaced the light-receiving system of the CMOS camera with CCD for color clarity and increased resolutions allowing the robot to see farther.

Processing System: the researcher replaced the Microcontroller system with PC-104 and Windows XP embedded to support multiple hardware. It made writing commands easier and faster.

Walking System: the researcher designed and used a new type of knee joint with 2 motors per knee to increase the knee opening speed that permits the robot to walk faster.

 

KM: Small Bipedal Robot KM Series

The 5th generation humanoid robot was built in 2008. Its average walking speed ~ 0.25 meters per second. The number of degrees of freedom is 22, which has been improved from the 4th generation as follows. Vision system: The researcher upgraded the camera that offered more pixels and higher speed to capture images.

Processing system: The researcher switched from the Windows XP embedded to the LINUX operating system. It helps write commands more quickly and it is easier to link the data between robots.

Walking and mechanical systems: From experiences, the knee is the joints that bear most weights during walking. Thus, knee motors are damaged easily. Changing the motor size to withstand more torque is the answer for stable walking. Moreover, the robot’s new legs are designed to help the robot get up from a falling position by using less energy.

Phoenix: Small Bipedal Robot Phoenix Series

It is the 6th generation humanoid robot. The structure of the robot has been changed to 19 degrees of freedom by reducing the degrees of freedom of the arm that is not needed for the movement and adding waist joints to increase the robot’s ability to maintain balance and stand up. Moreover, the size of the ankle motor used to handle the load while walking is changed to handle more torque. The main processing system is moved to be installed in the middle of the body to reduce the load of the motor as well as to reduce damage from the impact that may occur after the robot falls. Thus, the robot average walking speed is increased to ~ 0.3 meters per second.

As for the camera used to capture the image, the researcher changed the position of the lens from being placed diagonally from the center of the body to speed up image processing.

Fixed settings in the robot control program were adjusted to the new size of the robot. The robot improved the way it looks for the ball and how it approaches its opponent in the game to get the ball faster and more accurately.

Thailand Humanoid Robot Soccer Championship hosted by Thai Robotics Society-TRS with the support from Seagate Technology (Thailand)

Robot soccer competition is a very challenging robot competition as the participants need to develop a two-legged, humanoid robot that can play soccer. The robot must be automatic and autonomous without human control. It needs to have an ability to differentiate between its team and the opponents and collaborate with its team by using only the built-in processing unit, without any external processing units.

The researcher developed both hardware and software of the humanoid robot under the limitations that are sizes and weights of various devices in the robot.  In the competition for small humanoid robots, the robot must be human-shaped with a height between 30-60 centimeters. The development of this type of humanoid robot is more complicated.

The humanoid robot has approximately 20-22 motors for various joints to help with its movements. The walking system is very important for a humanoid robot because it has two legs. It is necessary for the robot to have the ability to maintain balance at all times for stability when moving or standing still.

Another important system for the humanoid robot is the vision system. Humanoid robots must have the ability to recognize the position of the ball on the field and the goals of its team and the opponent through cameras installed on the robot’s head.

The humanoid robot starts its basic operation by pointing the camera to examine the circumstance before entering the field. Images from the camera are sent to the image processing system to search for the ball on the field and the opponent’s goal. After that, the main processing system will calculate the distance and command the motors which are used for the robot’s movement. The robot will approach the ball, kick it in the opponent’s goal, or other actions depending on its intelligence and pre-programmed strategy, for example, it may avoid the opponent and give the ball to its team member.

It has won the competition three times in a row (2010-2012).