Lo and behold! Skateboarding humanoid

[limor]

We've seen Qurio do it but that was $150m investment so it's expected..

But getting a servo-driven humanoid surely with no feedback control other than a <strike>gyro</strike> 3-axis accelerometer to pull off an Ollie means days of hard work orchesting the perfect reproducible sequence of motions

Douze Points to Plen

(robots-dreams.com)

[robodude666 offline]

OMFG! That is the cutest thing I ever seen Bye bye Tony Hawk, welcome robotic skateboarders.

[Pev offline]

This is sooo coool - 'nuf said

[limor]

Turns out it's name Plen is Japanization of the world "plain" (see this link) as in unimposing plain simple robot. It was designed by "Robot Laboratory" that is somehow affiliated with Vstone (designers of JR-Propo's RB1000 kit, Robovie-M and others) that is somehow affiliated with Mr. Takahashi of Kyoto University who designed the FT (Female Type) robot and who are part of "Team-Osaka", winners in several categories of the Robocup humanoid league....

[robodude666 offline]

Little bugger costs about $2,200!! But hes so cute!!!

[Chrisbie offline]

2200USD!!! Still cheaper than sony AIBO7... Where can wew buy this?

[robodude666 offline]

Not totally sure. Don't think theres an actual "shop" where you can buy them. I think if you want to buy one, you need to inquiry them via This Inquiry form

[inaki offline]

More data on Plen:

CPU ARM7. Yes it is a 32 bit ARM, so, no microcontrollers but a whole CPU.
DOF: Total 18, 6 DOF for each leg, and 3 DOF for each arm.
Autonomy: 25 minutes (I would bet CPU takes a big part of battery)
Size: 23 cm
Weight: 700 gr. with battery (so, pretty light).
Software: Motion Editor
Interface PC: USB
Battery pack: 6V 700mAh
Wireless Communication: Bluetooth!

[limor]

Go figure out this one..
The Plen video mentioned at the beginning of this thread from June last year, was watched about 70,000 times.

I just received a "watch this cool video" email referring to a similar Plen skateboarding video. However, this one was re-uploaded by some guy only a month ago to youtube and just look at the popularity



In case you want to further increase its popularity, here's a direct link

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[RobotServicesGroup offline]

This slipped past us a few months ago, but the Plen manual is now available in English. The robot is still way too expensive, but at least you can understand how to put one together.

English documents are available here

[limor]

After 8 years Plen is making a comeback. This time on kickstarter with an professionally eerie video production showing multicultural actors interacting with the robot including a scene titled "rehabilitation" with an old chair-bound lady wearing a Myo to control the robot and a doctor behind her writing on a notepad. The campaign uses all the right words (opensource, arduino, ROS, 3D printing) to entice hapless kickstarter hipster fans with half a grand to spare.

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I really hope they reach their funding goal and bring in a new generation of servo-driven humanoid robot fans.

The original amazing skateboarding video has been removed for some odd reason and replaced with a slick new youtube channel.
although a couple of people have fortunatly re-uploaded it to youtube.

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