The main difficulties are:
- a really good walking motion would have many frames in it
- trying to program/tweak with a robot wriggling around is tricky
- the balance changes depending on the time, wires, center of mass… so many things!

Maybe it is easier for the robot to teach itself how to walk!

I’m thinking in order to do that I would need:
- Encoders* on each DOF (* I may not need encoders if these servos do provide feedback based on location, have to check)
- AI algorithm(s)
- Data logging
- Long battery life
- Patience

Creating the AI algorithms would be fun, but it would just take a lot of trial an error. In this scenario, the robot would “find” many loopholes in the algorithm. Not only would the goal have to be precisely defined, but so would the constraints.

However, at the same time I’m wondering if there is something that I am missing when trying to create the walking motion. Check out how simple it looks on the Nao:

I’m going to try again tomorrow, but use the knee servos more. Maybe the trick is to do it like this:
Move center of mass (right/left)
Lift knee (left/right)
Move leg SLIGHTLY forward (left/right)
Lower knee (left/right)
Move center of mass (left/right)
and repeat.

I hope that one will work.

In other news, I finished another iPhone app, and it is currently in the review process. I won’t spoil too much, but it makes a *ding dong* noise.

In more other news, my summer research was completed a few weeks ago and I am currently finishing the final report. I will post more details on this when it is all complete.

In even more other news, I have been playing with the gyro sensor, and I am planning to make some sort of motion for MANOI with it. However, I have to make MANOI walk first

Since the Sanguino requires too many female headers (which cost money, and I don’t have any), I decided to switch up to the Arduino MEGA. It fits in the box that is already there, so it is all good.

Originally I thought that the Wave Shield would work on the MEGA, but it turned out that it didn’t. What I ended up doing instead, though was using one of the MEGA’s extra Serial lines to send a command to another Arduino to start playing music (on the Wave Shield).

I used my iHome speaker thing that I bought at Walmart for $20. Pretty good value, and it’s purple.

It was pretty fun. However, I only used the motions that I created a while ago when MANOI’s knees were broken. A blog post is coming shortly about the previous FNR where I fixed the gears

I even attached a wild duck to MANOI’s head for the occasion:

Here is a video, it is not too good:

See, the problem in the video (when I had to shake it) was that the TX line to the SSC was loose. It does this from time to time. Especially after switching boards!

I finished the right leg on Tuesday… I worked on the left one today, and will hopefully finish it off tomorrow so I can spend some time on it on Saturday (and make an insightful blog post for once)

What I’m interested in seeing is what is the maximum speed the robot can go at, without tipping over. Since I’m coding it in slow-motion, I may not account for all of the possible moving parts when the robot is going faster.

Robot motion is pretty cool stuff- it looks easy, but it really isn’t

I’ve also been working on a few other things… More on that (hopefully) tomorrow or Hallowe’en.

Right now I’m in the process of mapping out a way for the humanoid to walk. It’s intensely difficult… So, I’m doing it with pencil and paper… then I’ll code it into the Arduino, and find a protractor to double check all the angles.

(Hey- my plan sounds FANTASTIC in theory! I guess this will mean I will end up doing everything BUT the plan =D )

I’ll probably make a back-dated blog post on Wednesday as that is when I got the robot to balanced, and it’s a pretty significant milestone ^_^

My “jello world” iPhone app is coming along nicely. I like it a lot, hopefully I’ll be putting it up in the App Store in the middle of next week =D

This week’s Friday Night MANOI was dedicated to the Cylon contest on MAKE. Since I only found out about it on Tuesdayish, and the deadline is pretty soonish, I had to come up with something QUICK. I have a humanoid, MANOI, and I do have artistic skills… so I came up with Paper Cylon!

Why Paper Cylon, though? Remember Paper Mario? That game was so uber cool, and fun. What if there were Paper Cylons? That would be pretty funny. Although what I made will be improved on later dates, I think it may hit the nail on the head for random creativity.

I took lots of photos, I like Paper Cylon!

RoboPhilo comes in two configurations, a fully assembled version ready to walk for under $500, and a kit version for under $400.

(Store is here)

Relatively affordable at $300, i-Sobot has 17 motors, can recognize spoken words and be controlled remotely, making the walking, somersaulting, karate-chopping robot as close to a humanoid as toys get.

It seems that the i-SOBOT is cooler, yet the RoboPhilo might be less of a toy and more advanced. I still <3 my MANOI though

Link and Link ^^.