RN1 on miniature RC motorcycle
RN1 on miniature RC motorcycle
by limor
Tue Aug 07, 2007 1:14 pm
I saw Matt's video of RN1 (transformed into Optimus Prime) attempting to ride a motorcycle on Robots-Dreams
and i was wondering if having a gyro linked to the torso or arms servos would be able to get him to balance?
and i was wondering if having a gyro linked to the torso or arms servos would be able to get him to balance?
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by cdraptor
Tue Aug 07, 2007 8:37 pm
The problem with putting it on the bike is how would you adjust the balance once you read the gyro values, the bike is basically going forward and turning. On the Robonova you could utilize the legs and such to allow him to shift weight - which if you are watching the video the RN-1 makes the bike very top heavy - how to read and adjust balance fast enough is going to be a challenge.
by bauermech
Wed Aug 08, 2007 1:13 pm
Hi guys!
Just to be clear... I don't want to minimize Leo Garza's efforts, and the rest of the M5 Industries team working on the real-deal project. They've been working on it for... well, I first heard about it nearly a year ago. You can imagine what they've encountered.
Obviously, their custom RC bike is far more up for the challenge than the toy I was using. It's proportionally matched to the RN-1 and reaches very high speeds quickly - one of the key ingredients helping keep the RN-1 upright. Two other issues creating problems w/ my test was the soft suspension and weak steering linkage. The robonova sat on a nearly bottomed out bike, and the linkage... well, I believe it used magnets (?). Any lean, and the RN-1's weight would dramatically pull on the front wheel. Strengthen the suspension and steering and we'd be well on our way.
cdraptor is right, the biggest challenge is in the speed of reading & compensating. You can get the gyros to be pretty responsive, but I don't know if it would be fast enough... Then again, the faster you can bring the bike up to speed, the less feedback you'd need from the gyro... I think. When riding bikes, if you’re stopped, or riding very slow, the bike wants to tumble over easier than it would if you were moving faster.
Kind of off topic: You guys saw the robot that rode a bicycle around that track (robots-dreams about 6mos ago or something)... it peddled slowly, but still kept it's balance? I think it used a mechanical/spinning gyroscope planted in his chest vs. a solidstate. Neat.
I guess, we'll either have to experiment some more or wait for M5's report.
Just to be clear... I don't want to minimize Leo Garza's efforts, and the rest of the M5 Industries team working on the real-deal project. They've been working on it for... well, I first heard about it nearly a year ago. You can imagine what they've encountered.
Obviously, their custom RC bike is far more up for the challenge than the toy I was using. It's proportionally matched to the RN-1 and reaches very high speeds quickly - one of the key ingredients helping keep the RN-1 upright. Two other issues creating problems w/ my test was the soft suspension and weak steering linkage. The robonova sat on a nearly bottomed out bike, and the linkage... well, I believe it used magnets (?). Any lean, and the RN-1's weight would dramatically pull on the front wheel. Strengthen the suspension and steering and we'd be well on our way.
cdraptor is right, the biggest challenge is in the speed of reading & compensating. You can get the gyros to be pretty responsive, but I don't know if it would be fast enough... Then again, the faster you can bring the bike up to speed, the less feedback you'd need from the gyro... I think. When riding bikes, if you’re stopped, or riding very slow, the bike wants to tumble over easier than it would if you were moving faster.
Kind of off topic: You guys saw the robot that rode a bicycle around that track (robots-dreams about 6mos ago or something)... it peddled slowly, but still kept it's balance? I think it used a mechanical/spinning gyroscope planted in his chest vs. a solidstate. Neat.
I guess, we'll either have to experiment some more or wait for M5's report.
