Hobby Humanoid robot KHR3HV rides bike at 10k/h

[nunogato]

PRIMER-V2 is the name of a robot and his custom bike. Dr.Guero hooked a KHR3HV bipedal robot to a small bike.


primer_v2 by RoboSavvy, on Flickr

The robot pedals with his feet at variable speed. The steering is done by the robot hands as with a normal bike, and remote controled by a human.

Stability is acheived by relying on the inertial centrifugal effect of the front wheel and on a gyro aided by a PID controller that takes over streering when driving in a straigh line. Seems like when the robot steers his arms he also bends the waist leaning a bit into the turn. Breaking is acheived by taking the feet off the pedals and pointing them down to the ground using the metal feet as friction breaks.

He is able to walk backwards and forwards while in break mode with feet pointing to the ground and he gets back into pedaling by lifting one foot onto a pedal then the other, starting to pedal and then the PID controller kicks in. Seems like there is human intervention when going from breaking position to lifting the first foot involving setting the pedal at the lowest position.

A small (6 deg) angle lags between the leading foot and the other so that the leading foot is pushing down since the foot moving up is not pulling the pedal. This prevents from the foot coming up from interfering the the downwards torque action of the other foot.

Check the video

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[limor]

This post has been slashdot'ed and there are some very interesting comments about the magic of cycling:

A number of very thorough studies have been done. Neither "inertia" or "centrifugal effect" from either front wheel or rear contribute anything significant to the stability of a bicycle. [wired.com] The fact is that even today, we do not fully understand the phenomenon. The only thing we are sure of is that it does not work the way most people think it does.

[Fabrizia offline]

This is an amazing build! I would never have thought that this would even be possible, or at least be nearly impossible to achieve. I am very impressed with the design of this robot, this is one of the most impressive technological achievements I have seen in a while. I have been trying to remember the name of this technology company that is known for it's work with accident reconstruction, and I cannot remember their name for the life of me. I was trying to tell my friend about them because he is looking for work in this area. If anyone knows who I'm talking about, I would appreciate your help. Thank you.

[beccasims offline]

This is an amazing build! I would never have thought that this would even be possible, or at least be nearly impossible to achieve. I am very impressed with the design of this robot, this is one of the most impressive technological achievements I have seen in a while. I have been trying to remember the name of this technology company that is known for it's work but I am thinking on a blog about this, and I cannot remember their name for the life of me. I was trying to tell my friend about them because he is looking for work in this area. If anyone knows who I'm talking about, I would appreciate your help. Thank you.

Wow! That's a great news. This can really help people to automate its pedaling. I hope the scientists will develop and automate many things.

[mkegruber offline]

Hi,

I was lucky to be at IREX and saw this robot in person. I also had a chance to ask Dr Guero about the robot. The processing is done with a small form board running Linux.

Regards
Michael

[limor]

Hi,

I was lucky to be at IREX and saw this robot in person. I also had a chance to ask Dr Guero about the robot. The processing is done with a small form board running Linux.

Regards
Michael

Any more info and pictures will be much appreciated!

[PeteRobotman offline]

This is an amazing build! I would never have thought that this would even be possible, or at least be nearly impossible to achieve. I am very impressed with the design of this robot, this is one of the most impressive technological achievements I have seen in a while. I have been trying to remember the name of this technology company that is known for it's work with accident reconstruction, and I cannot remember their name for the life of me. I was trying to tell my friend about them because he is looking for work in this area. If anyone knows who I'm talking about, I would appreciate your help. Thank you.

This is an amazing achievement. Not long ago a truck the size of a full size RV was required to house the computers to go 3 mph along a road that had white lines painted on both sides…and that was considered a world breaking achievement.

Hey Fabrizia, in what country is the company that you are inquiring about? Any clues to the location or city would be extremely helpful.
Cheers, Pete.

[Dipper offline]

The robot pedals with its feet at variable speed. The steering is done by the robot hands as with a normal bike, and remote controlled by a human. Stability is achieved by relying on the inertial centrifugal effect of the front wheel and on a gyro aided by a PID controller that takes over steering when driving in a straight line.

[jennyb offline]

wow..amazing robot. It's like the jetsons. remember that cartoon we watched as kids? Imagine every family having it's own robot to clean the house etc. That would be wonderful.

[Thex1138 offline]

Great applause to the builder on this uperb project!
When I saw it I couldn't believe it.

Have a great day!

[Daris offline]

The robot pedals with its feet at variable speed. The steering is done by the robot hands as with a normal bike, and remote controlled by a human. Stability is achieved by relying on the inertial centrifugal effect of the front wheel and on a gyro aided by a PID controller that takes over steering when driving in a straight line.

It would be nice too if they can upgrade it to cycle a bit on its own, now that would be extraordinary. Nevertheless, it looks amazing!

Daris

[Starburry offline]

This is an amazing project! I think the author of this creature is a real genius! Great work, dude!

[kenbright offline]

Hi,

I was lucky to be at IREX and saw this robot in person. I also had a chance to ask Dr Guero about the robot. The processing maschine is done with a small form board running Linux.

Regards
Michael

Damn, you're a lucky guy to see this one in real.

[peterqo offline]

That is AMAZING! Very inspiring, great job!

[Robert Webber offline]

Its really impressive that they make the design of the control system easier by innovatively used a special component, a ratchet, to mechanically decouple the two pedaling mechanism. For the control aspect, the main control hardware used was Compact RIO made by NI instruments. They have also used an optical interrupter. Thank you so much for sharing this wonder piece of information.