Robotics
A new robot, developed at Disney has been demonstrated, and shows a precise and fluid movement, nearly perfectly echoing the gestures of a remote operator. 'Jimmy,' as the robot is called, suggests applications such as telepresence and education, but the overall impression could have much broader implications in light of how closely we will be working with robots in the future.
Disney Research roboticists have developed hybrid hydrostatic transmission systems for a human-safe haptic telepresence robot prototype called 'Jimmy.'
The common air-filled line preloads all DOFs in the system, allowing bidirectional operation of every joint. This configuration achieves the high stiffness of a water-filled transmission with half the number of bulky hydraulic lines.
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Unlike motors or servos, Jimmy's systems don't have to place complex motor assemblies inside the robot’s arms. This means the overall system can be smaller and lighter, which also means it will generally be safer for close human contact..The new actuators were used to build a humanoid robot with two 4-DOF arms, connected via the hydrostatic transmission to an identical master.
Stereo cameras mounted on a 2-DOF servo-controlled neck stream live video to the operator’s head-mounted display, which in turn sends the real-time attitude of the operator’s head to the neck servos in the robot.
"The ability to be swift yet delicate . . . enabled by an ultralight and ultralow friction robot arm will allow for manipulation strategies that embrace contact with the environment, rather than a traditional vision-only approach."
The operator is visually immersed in the robot’s physical workspace, and through the bilateral coupling of the low-impedance hydrostatic transmission, directly feels interaction forces between the robot and external environment. "We qualitatively assessed the performance of this system for remote object manipulation and use as a platform to safely study physical human-robot interaction," state the researchers.As the video below shows, the hydraulic robot offers incredibly smooth and fast motion, while maintaining backdrivability and bidirectional force reflection, allowing safe interaction with people, and the handling of delicate objects.
John P. Whitney, who led the development of the robot told IEEE Spectrum, "The ability to be swift yet delicate, and the natural sense of environmental “proprioception” enabled by an ultralight and ultralow friction robot arm will allow for manipulation strategies that embrace contact with the environment, rather than a traditional vision-only approach that must carefully avoid any unintended contacts."
As robots move out of factories, and into our homes and offices, this level of compliance and haptics will be essential.
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