RESEARCH ON BIPEDAL ROBOTS APLLIED TO SOCIETY

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1 Yuri dos Santos Mota 1, Armando Carlos de Pina Filho 2, Aloísio Carlos de Pina 3 1 Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Mechanical Engineering Department, Polytechnic School, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil, yuri_mota@poli.ufrj.br 2 Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Urban Engineering Program, Polytechnic School, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil, armando@poli.ufrj.br 3 Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Civil Engineering Program, COPPE, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil, aloisiopina@bol.com.br Abstract: Bipedal robots represent a important research subject, and there are several types of robots, such as: WABIAN-2R, QRIO, ASIMO, REEM-B, Toyota Walking, Toyota ifoot and HPR-2. In this work some characteristics of these robots will be presented, intending to evaluate the benefits for society, from the insertion of robots in urban environment. Keywords: Robotics, Locomotion, Sociology. 1. INTRODUCTION There millennia ago men had ideas about a being that could be made to their services and the one that would be impossible for us humans. And for a long time there were several attempts to create such a being. In 1921, the Czech Karel in his impromptu "RUR" (Rossum's Universal Robots) introduced the word "robot" which according to itself was created by his brother Josef. And then the word "robotics" comes from the works of the great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. He is the author of famous books like "I, Robot" and was most famous for having created the so-called "Three Laws of Robotics" and then the "Law Zero". The robotics as a science has emerged and evolved in the last century and of today is beginning to offer benefits that are radically changing the history of the world. Currently, robots are used to manufacture, assemble, pack, transport, in surgery, space and earth exploration and in industries for mass production. Besides dirty services, with high accuracy and especially high risk for humans. There are also the developing of robots that are in various areas such as entertainment, surveillance and many others. We will speak in this paper specifically about bipedal robots. Which are those that attract more attention of people mainly because they are mostly designed based on human. And even though most of them are not very useful to society, it is great to monitor their progress and can imagine the amount of important tasks they can do in the future. We will show that the major work projects that were created today showing the specifications of them, a bit of their history and their capabilities. 2. WABIAN-2R WABIAN-2R (Fig. 1) is a humanoid robot built by Waseda University aiming to mimic human movements and make simulations of tasks and human movements in the future. It is a robot that is still undergoing tests, but have a system of locomotion and its innovative design will help to understand other robotic projects. The WABIAN-2R has 1475m tall, 64.5 kg, an autonomy of 20 minutes and has 41 degrees of freedom. It has a single system in its waist with two degrees of freedom, one circular and one of inclination, which allows a freedom for the knees to be in an independent position of movement of the trunk. This gives the robot a walking very similar to humans. Fig. 1. WABIAN-2R - front and profile. 1 Serra Negra, SP - ISSN

2 A practical example of the usefulness of the robot is a study done about the emulation experiments of a disabled person's gait, capturing all the movements and in particular the joints. The parameters of human normal and disabled person have been tested and compared, and observed the differences the scientists confirmed the efficiency of various joints and parties responsible for balancing of the body, so that scientists understand better the functioning of the human body and they can use this information to help treatment of such disabilities (Fig. 2). The usefulness of ifoot is one of the most important in the short term, because people who have mobility problems, with the development of this technology, can use prototypes more advanced and dynamic of ifoot to move. The next step in Toyota is developing a control in which small body movements as move the head to one side can move the robotic legs to the desire of the driver. 4. TOYOTA WALKING MODEL A humanoid robot created by Toyota to entertain people. Launched in 2005, the model walking can basically carry objects, walk and play instruments. It has a high ability to play instruments, to blow the right way and put your hands and fingers as the human and play well a trumpet, for example (Fig. 4). Another highlight is its modern and soft design. The Walking Toyota has 1.45 m tall, 40 kg and 31 degrees of freedom. Fig. 2. Emulation of a disabled person's gait.. 3. TOYOTA IFOOT This robot can be considered the first truly functional exoskeleton of history. Launched in 2005 by Toyota, the ifoot (Fig. 3) have legs that seem bird legs in order to be easily assembled or disassembled. It is operated for a three-dimensional and smooth mobility, controlled by a joystick and a control panel. Designed in order to give maximum comfort and sense of security to the user. The ifoot has 2.36m tall, 200kg, 12 degrees of freedom and can walking 1.35 km / h. Fig. 4. Walking Toyota Playing trumpet. It is a robot made clear in order to entertain, and Toyota continues developing the musician robots and they have a band with drums, trumpet, violin, trombone and future they want to make a full jazz band. Fig. 3. IFoot standing up. 5. REEM-B REEM-B (Fig. 5) is a humanoid robot created by Pal Technology Robotics from United Arab Emirates. It is focused on the idea of being a robot to support human services in sophisticated tasks in the future. It can walk, sit in a chair and lift, to recognize and carry light objects, heavy or delicate, recognize people, voice and remember commitments as a secretary (talking). The battery work for two hours, the single market, which provides a significant increase in him autonomy. It also has a great ability to load objects (heavy too), and a featured is REEM-B's ability to walk in a complex environment full 2 Serra Negra, SP - ISSN

3 of obstacles and create your own path in this environment in addition to automatically change the path where new acts an obstacle in the path. The REEM-B is 60 kg, 1.41 m tall, has 41 degrees of freedom, he can load up to 12 kg, walking 1.5 Km/h and has one of the best processing capacities of recognition of the market. 6. QRIO Fig. 5. The robot carrying height water bottles. QRIO (Quest for curiosity) is an entertainment robot from Sony following the success of the famous Aibo. It is one of the most modern and interesting robots built. It was the first robot to be able to run. Moreover, it can climb and descend stairs, carrying objects, to launch a ball, making movements of martial arts and we should highlight three more skills: recognition of the voice and face that he has the incredible ability to communicate, and may even have small dialogues and learn too. The QRIO have human reflexes, and protect himself with its arms and legs, in case of fall down, and it can stand up alone. incredible ability to communicate what makes him a great toy for small children because actions like to talk and to learn new words and new actions, and to monitor the kids and report to their parents on internet what is happening (Fig. 6, Tanaka et al., 2007). 7. HPR-2 PROMET The HPR-2 or "Promet" humanoid robot is headed by the Manufacturing Science and Technology Center (MSTC) and designed and created by Kawada Industries and Humanoid Research Group of National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). It can walk, talk, charging, dancing (Fig 7), push objects with precision and walk on rough terrain. This robot highlights are the ability to stand up when its body facing down, to recognize and walk in rugged environments (with a complex system of balance) and help humans to do the tasks. The HRP-2 is 1.54 m tall, 58 kg, 30 degrees of freedom including two for the hips and can walk up to 2 km/h. It has a compact and sophisticated electrical system that lets the robot without the aspect that the other humanoid robots have what is to carry a backpack on their back. It is worth noting that the external appearance of HRP-2 was designed by Japanese Yutaka Izubuchi, a mechanical animator designer, famous for his robots that appear in Japanese animes. Fig. 7. HPR-2 dancing. Fig. 6. QRIO playing with the children. QRIO is 0.6 m tall, 7.3 kg, 38 degrees of freedom and can run 0.23 m / s, be controlled by distance and run for 1 hour. The main utility is entertaining. His body movements allow him to do a range of actions as dance and throw a ball to a child. The capacity for recognition and processing of information provides the QRIO an 8. ASIMO This is the most famous bipedal robot developed in the world. HONDA began in 1986 to its robotic project after creating a series of robots they created, in 2000, ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility)(Fig. 8). It is the result of 20 years of engineering work. It can run, walk, climb and descend stairs, turn smoothly, pull, carry and pushing objects, recognize people, talk, interact, learn, play soccer, etc. The robot has a great mobility and its major feature is the recognition of people and objects. 3 Serra Negra, SP - ISSN

4 Besides he has a good memory to learn new things. ASIMO has 34 degrees of freedom, 54 kg, 1,3 m tall. It can run 6 km/h and works for one hour. Fig. 8. HPR-2 dancing Control System About twenty central processing (CPU) and a large number of sensors are found in ASIMO (Fig. 9) to help in its control and movements. Each subsystem has audiovisual sensors and sensors of recognition, communication with the operator, power management and actuators for arms and legs. This makes the robot great in the interaction and communication with the operator and the environment Locomotion The Honda robot can walk and run in an accurate, smooth and stable way. It s happen because your efficient locomotion system. When, for example, ASIMO is walking and change quickly its trajectory it is necessary that the robot is transferred its Center of gravity for the inside of its curve to balance the centrifugal force. Before changing the path, the robot starts calculating the best shift of center of gravity in real time. This was only possible because of years of collecting data and programming of movements. When the robot is running an even greater challenge, because the robot needs to resist and to balance with the forces of reaction when he steps on the floor and when he takes the foot off the ground and with the circulars forces caused by rapid movement of legs. This requires actuators with strong response control, enhanced stabilization of the body and coordinate the arms and the top of the body to balance with the circulars forces mentioned Recognition System The recognition of moving objects using visual information captured by cameras mounted in its head, ASIMO can detect the movements of multiple objects, assessing distance and direction. The robot can: track the movements of people with your camera, follow a person, greet a person when he or she approaches. Through the recognition of gestures and postures on the basis of visual information, the ASIMO can interpret the positioning and movement of a hand, recognizing postures and gestures. So the Honda robot can react not only to voice commands, but also for the natural movement of one person (Fig. 10). Fig. 9. CPUs and sensors of ASIMO. 4 Serra Negra, SP - ISSN

5 Fig. 10. Recognition of hand movements. The robot is also able to assess the immediate environment, recognizing the position of obstacles and deflecting and avoiding collisions. Specifically, ASIMO can to prevent one person or other moving objects that appear suddenly in your path; recognize objects in him path and go around them. Moreover, the robot is able to identify the source of sounds and can distinguish between voices and other sounds. For example, ASIMO can: recognize when your name is called, and turning his head toward the source of sound, look at the face of the person speaking, and responding; recognize sudden, unusual sounds, like the fall of an object or a collision, and saw in that direction. The robot from Honda also has the ability to recognize faces, or even another ASIMO or when a human is moving. For example, it can: recognize the faces of people who have been pre-registered, call them by name, communicating messages to them and guide them; recognize approximately ten different people Integration with Local Network and Internet On integration with the user's network system, the SONY robot can: perform functions appropriately based on the user's client, greet visitors, informing the staff of the visitor's arrival by transmitting messages and images of the front of the visitor; guide visitors to a particular location, etc. Access to information via the Internet, ASIMO can become a provider of news and weather updates, for example, ready to answer questions of people and so on. 9. CONCLUSION It is a fact that in the near future the robots will be part of our reality and bipedal robots have great importance because they can be very similar with us, such as humanoid, or help us in important tasks, such as Toyota ifoot. Basically the biped humanoid robots start executing simple and boring services or dangerous or entertainment as take the dog for a walk, wash the dishes, loading boxes on the floor of manufactures, be a tourist guide, do manual services in dangerous places of one factory and dance for an human audience. In this first time, the development is more focused to develop the dynamics of robots, their autonomy and recognition of environments. In the future when the robot can similar as slow human the researches turned more to develop the artificial intelligence so that the robots are able to have more ability to discern and also to the connect of the robots with the internet networks so they can have quicker access to data without having to save in their memory. According to some scientists that technology will change our lives dramatically. And in fact, thinking superficially, we may conclude that the system of work will change radically (with mass unemployment) and we will reach to the points never previously thought (as in a volcano or on distant planets). It is up to us being able to use this innovation in the best of our advantage. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author Aloísio Carlos de Pina would like to thank to CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) and FAPERJ (Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) for financial support in the course of this work. REFERENCES [1] Asimo, website American, 02/2009, Inside ASIMO, < [2] H. Hirai, The Honda humanoid robot: development and future perspective, Industrial Robot: An International Journal, ISSN: X, vol. 26, number 4, 1999, pp [3] M. Hirose, and K. Ogawa, Honda humanoid robots development, /rsta , Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 15, vol. 365, no. 1850, January 2007, pp [4] Kawada, website industries, 03/2009, HRP-2, < l >, [5] Lee, Craig website, QRIO, < [6] Pal Robotics, website, 03/2009, REEM-B, < >, [7] Machinebrain, website, 03/2009, New Honda ASIMO Features Intelligence Technology, < html>, [8] Takanishi, website Lab, 02/2009, Waseda university, Wabian-2R, < ac.jp/top/research/index.htm>, Serra Negra, SP - ISSN

6 [9] F. Tanaka, A. Cicourel, and J. Movellan, Socialization between toddlers and robots at an early childhood education center, Published online before print November 5, 2007, doi: /pnas PNAS, vol. 104, no , November, [10] R. Tellez, F. Ferro, S. Garcia, E. Gomez, E. Jorge, D. Mora, D. Pinyol, J. Poyatos, O. Torres, J. Velazquez, and D. Faconti, REEM-B: an autonomous lightweight human-size humanoid robot, in the 8th IEEE International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids08), [11] Toyota, Japanese website, 03/2009, attachment 3, partner robots, < 04/1203_1d.html and tech/robot/p_robot/details.html >, RESEARCH ON BIPEDAL ROBOTS APLLIED TO SOCIETY 6 Serra Negra, SP - ISSN