[HN Gopher] Leonardo, the Bipedal Robot, Can Ride a Skateboard a...
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Leonardo, the Bipedal Robot, Can Ride a Skateboard and Walk a
Slackline
Author : sizzle
Score : 99 points
Date : 2021-10-08 18:33 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.caltech.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.caltech.edu)
| SMAAART wrote:
| What's after singularity?
| jspash wrote:
| Just curious, and this might sound naive but this is a serious
| question.
|
| Are drone "blades" (not sure of the correct term) more efficient
| when they aren't enclosed? I understand this is a test unit and
| there are myriad safety precautions taken when testing. But my
| first thought when seeing open blades is what happens if it
| falls, trips or otherwise goes out of control? Then you have
| rapidly spinning blades going helter skelter to deal with. Not
| just hitting into any soft humans standing around. But the floor,
| tables, doors, wires, expensive computer equipment. It seems a
| bit daft unless it has a purpose that I've missed.
| SamBam wrote:
| Most drone propellors are extremely lightweight, meaning that
| the damage they can inflict is very limited.
| glitchcrab wrote:
| They have very high RPM though as my finger can attest when I
| mis-judged catching my DJI done once - the cut was
| surprisingly deep for light plastic props. I'd hate to see
| what a more substantial prop could do.
| fh973 wrote:
| Generally, ducted propellers are more efficient.
|
| And yes, these blades are effectively rotating knives. Even
| small drone motors and propellers are very dangerous as the
| motors have a lot of power and high RPM, and the more high-end
| ones are made of CFK and have sharp edges. As these four do not
| only lift a drone, but a whole robot frame, I'd assume they'd
| easily cut through a finger.
| hungryforcodes wrote:
| Looks a bit like the main antagonist out of the Alien series...
| codeulike wrote:
| Me: "Leo, please bring me a cookie."
|
| Leo hops off the table picks up a cookie and walks over.
| Unfortunately as it gets near the sofa one of its propellers
| makes contact with the cookie ...
|
| Me, being showered in high speed crumbs: "Leo, please bring me
| another cookie"
| moffkalast wrote:
| Leo: "If you take a cookie I will be forced to add one full day
| to your sentence."
| codeulike wrote:
| Me: "Leo, please bring me my printout"
|
| Leo hops over the the printer and lifts the pile of newly
| printed pages. Unfortunately as it gets near to my desk, the
| paper is caught in the downdraft from Leos propellers ...
|
| Me, manually sorting my scattered fifty page printout back into
| page number order: "Leo, please play the sad trombone noise"
| trollied wrote:
| Youtube video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhpMlI8jb5o
|
| Leonardo = LEgs ONboARD drOne
| IshKebab wrote:
| Cool, but impossible to tell how good it is without knowing how
| much of the weight the drone part is dealing with. It could be
| "Leonardo, the drone with legs that can touch the ground" but we
| can't really tell.
| option_greek wrote:
| Not sure that bipedal motion is all that effective. Could have
| just put wheels instead for faster navigation and of course fly
| over terrain it can't navigate like its already doing.
| huhtenberg wrote:
| In theory, flying and hopping (via flying) can handle all
| walking scenarios. So if a robot can fly, that's it.
|
| In practice, I am guessing, walking or riding is far more power
| efficient.
| after_care wrote:
| Flying greatly reduces the weight carrying capacity, and is
| in theory more susceptible to high wind environments.
|
| There's a dozen "far future" use cases were a bipedal machine
| will be more acceptable to humans, including in home maid and
| artificial body.
| joe_the_user wrote:
| With things like this, it's worth keeping in mond that setting up
| a robot to do solo tricks is infinitely easier than getting a
| robot to interact with the real world in even the "easy" seeming
| ways that humans and animals use.
| mam3 wrote:
| Bipedal _drone_. Its not the same to stabilize on the slackline
| with rotors than without.
| bperson wrote:
| It is the same. The propellers take the same role as gyros. It
| just uses atmosphere to create lift to become buoyant to make
| up for the fact that it is not very powerful. Once it is
| buoyant the interaction between legs and blades seem like the
| same type of stabilization as any other robot- fast micro
| adjustments of various potential-filled motors to stay on
| course
| Retric wrote:
| Not quite it's much easier to balance on a slack line if you
| can put a hand or even just a few fingers on a stationary
| object. The propellers offer similar benefits.
| mrfusion wrote:
| This could be great for package delivery.
| cs702 wrote:
| ...and also _fly over obstacles_.
|
| Leonardo is a _drone_ with two legs.
|
| Cool.
| mrfusion wrote:
| It's interesting we never see birds or insects doing this hybrid
| walking flying locomotion. Perhaps some species of dinos did it.
|
| Update: An ask Jeeves search suggests ostriches use their wings
| for balance but I couldn't find any videos. Can anyone find such
| a thing? Perhaps it's misinformation.
| bserge wrote:
| Hens, ducks, geese, pigeons all use their wings for various
| movements. City pigeons might evolve into penguin-like birds.
| Lazy bastards don't even get out of your way these days.
| otras wrote:
| The closest hybrid to me seems to be wing assisted climbing:
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing-assisted_incline_runnin...
|
| It's as if Leonardo had to climb up a ramp and used some of the
| generated propeller lift to reduce the force required from the
| legs.
| cheese_goddess wrote:
| Chickens sure use their wings for short bursts of speed and
| even to jump over obstacles or onto trees etc. Scare a hen
| sufficiently and it will fly a few feet away. Like littlte
| caricature dragons though they're too plump and their wings too
| small to really fly. They kind of fly-run instead.
| ericbarrett wrote:
| North American quail do exactly this. They don't fly for long
| distances; maybe 50m max, or a hop out of danger or over an
| obstacle. Most of the time they walk, and they have ground
| nests.
| pacaro wrote:
| Jungle fowl (from which we get chickens) can't fly long
| distances, they can only fly in bursts to escape predators,
| get to a roosting site etc.
|
| A jungle is a good example for this, a larger, ground based
| animal that can boost jump (for all intents and purposes) to
| get out of trouble, but doesn't need to fly through dense
| foliage where it would be tricky for a larger animal.
| trhway wrote:
| wild turkeys can really fly-jump high - for the night they fly
| up to the 30 feet high branches. Looks very impressive.
|
| The robot in the OP is very inefficient for most of the
| practical tasks except where such mixed capabilities outweigh
| the inefficiencies, ie. like some military applications.
| choo-t wrote:
| Roadrunner mostly walk and run, but can fly/glide when needed
| (going over an obstacle or escaping a predator).
| clairity wrote:
| > "It's interesting we never see birds or insects doing this
| hybrid walking flying locomotion."
|
| it's energetically too expensive for basically no benefit (in
| daily life), so that's why it's limited to escape situations
| where the mortal danger outweighs energetic cost.
|
| this robot is also impractical beyond its research value for
| the same reason, too energetically costly. it's too
| energetically costly because it's constantly actively actuated,
| with two different sets of locomotors needing coordination on
| top of that, to achieve dynamic stability. animals rely on
| passive dynamic stability (akin to springs and dampers) to
| conserve energy and extend actuation time/efficiency (due to
| evolutionary pressure).
| throwaway984393 wrote:
| That is absolutely terrifying. Can you imagine the Terminator
| movies where the Terminators _can fly_? I would have called it
| ridiculous before I saw this...
| warent wrote:
| Robots are about as terrifying as a vacuum cleaner. They're
| fundamentally dumb machines that give an illusion of something
| more. Pull back the curtain and you'll see a potato brained
| CPU, ready to take instructions like a well trained dog.
| zepto wrote:
| Guns are even less intelligent than robots. They are still
| terrifying when someone points one at you.
| kevinmchugh wrote:
| Lots of people train dogs specifically to harm humans
| Tepix wrote:
| Tell that to the dead soldiers in Libya that were killed by
| an autonomous drone earlier this year
|
| https://www.voanews.com/a/africa_possible-first-use-ai-
| armed...
| anonymfus wrote:
| The whole point of Terminators was that they could look and act
| like humans so they can infiltrate.
|
| There were various flying war machines in Terminator movies.
| Notably the opening shot of the first Terminator movie shows a
| flying platform killing people with lasers, and in Terminator 3
| there was an experimental drone in one of the labs in the
| facility where Robert Brewster worked.
| shoto_io wrote:
| What is this? A flying robot? No. To me, it looks more like a
| walking drone!
| tromp wrote:
| A high-heeled robot with a levitation spell.
| wertgklrgh wrote:
| do a kickflip
| kitd wrote:
| Nice.
|
| The idea of having stabilisation near the top of the frame well
| above the CoG rather than down at the ankles or hips seems like
| one of those obvious things that is easy to miss.
|
| I wonder whether/how that simplifies the rest of the control
| mechanisms.
| elhenrico wrote:
| I can't unsee the Grim Fandango pidgeon in it.
| Causality1 wrote:
| That's not _riding_ a skateboard. That is _dragging_ a
| skateboard.
| InvaderFizz wrote:
| Agreed. This is not a bipedal robot. It's a drone that they
| added mostly useless legs to.
|
| From the video, I'm not sure it could even walk at all without
| the propellers spinning.
| SamBam wrote:
| It can't, they mentioned that.
|
| Agree with your assessment that is a drone with useless legs.
| Animats wrote:
| More like landing gear.
| [deleted]
| righttoolforjob wrote:
| This looks completely useless. What's the point?
| YeGoblynQueenne wrote:
| From the accompanying video:
|
| "The goal is to give unprecedented walking ability and to solve
| problems posed by hybrid locomotion".
|
| https://youtu.be/DhpMlI8jb5o?t=33
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| Lots of room for optimization - hops are exaggerated height;
| props running even when on the ground.
| jack_riminton wrote:
| Why not just fly?
| nomel wrote:
| Flying with props takes constant energy (unlike gliding).
| Standing takes very little. This is a research platform that's
| somewhere in between.
| jacquesm wrote:
| Somewhere in between but very close to flying and quite far
| from walking.
| dougSF70 wrote:
| This is a novel solution. Why should a robot replicate a human
| skeleton and muscle system. If the species could develop
| propeller mutations through evolutionary processes then perhaps
| we would have. I would say a drone with useless legs is an apt
| description for a bird.
| chrisco255 wrote:
| Because it's a waste of energy. It's novel yet impractical.
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(page generated 2021-10-10 23:01 UTC)