Six-legged curling robot. Courtesy of Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Zhongxin Online Hai, February 18 (Qi Chenkun, Jiang Qianqian, Xu Jing) A pair of middle "legs" support the body, a pair of rear "legs" pedal starter, with a pair of front "legs" for the double "hands" to control the direction of curling and movement and rotation speed, a hard throw, hit the target! Shanghai Jiao Tong University released news on the 18th that a robot "player" led by Gao Feng, a professor at the School of Mechanical and Power Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and a six-legged curling robot research team composed of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Shanghai Intelligent Manufacturing Function Platform Co., Ltd. made its debut at the Winter Olympics in the "Ice Cube": curling throwing performance.
This curling robot "player" has received special support from the ministry of science and technology's national key research and development plan "Science and Technology Winter Olympics", and is a six-legged curling robot that can imitate the behavior of human pedaling, supporting sliding, and spinning curling.
The robot looks for a starter to transition from standing to pitching. Courtesy of Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Curling originated in Scotland and has been listed as an official Olympic sport since 1998. Curling is known as "chess on ice", the throwing team members half-crouch on the ice, gently rotate the curling to control the direction of the shot; two teammates can use a special ice brush to brush the ice surface in front of curling to control the direction and speed, which is a great test of the participants' physical strength and brainpower. After the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, there was a wheel curling robot in the world, which is mainly driven forward by wheels, and there is a difference between the behavior of people throwing curling.
"When a person throws curling, one leg supports the body, the other leg pedals the starter, the eyes aim at the target, and the hand controls the speed and direction of the curling, which is a complex decision-making behavior. How to design the structure of the robot according to the behavioral characteristics of human curling; how to identify the dynamic parameters of the ice surface and the robot contact according to the information measured by vision and force, so as to predict the trajectory of the robot's sliding and curling movement; how to control the robot's behavior according to the decision-making method of human curling, these are the technical challenges we encountered in the development of hexapod curling robots. Gao Feng introduced.
Robots hit curling out of base camp. Courtesy of Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Humans control the direction and rotation speed of curling with their hands, the foot of one leg supports the body, and the other leg pedals the starter - the six-legged robot designed by Shanghai Jiao Tong University has these three behavioral functions of human curling, which is very consistent with the division of labor between hands and feet when people throw curling. This is the first six-legged curling robot in the world to imitate the behavior of human pedaling, supporting sliding, spinning curling, etc.
Curling is not only a physical competition, but also an intellectual game. Therefore, the research team needs to train the robot according to the behavioral characteristics of human curling, so that the robot can realize the human behavior decision-making mode.
The robot throws the pot to the base camp. Courtesy of Shanghai Jiao Tong University
In the process of throwing curling, the front legs of the six-legged robot are converted into the function of human hands to realize the movement of holding the pot and rotating the pot; the knees of the middle legs and the elbow joints of the front legs are compounded into four points of contact with the ice surface to form the function of human support legs; the rear legs pedal the starter to achieve the function of promoting the robot to accelerate the sliding. In addition, the front legs have a secondary throwing of the pot during the robot's sliding movement to control the direction, speed and angular velocity of the curling movement, and realize the function of accurate jug throwing and hitting.
After the curling action is over, the robot switches from the curling-throwing configuration to the standing configuration, which can walk on the ice and find the starter. The roughness and friction characteristics of the ice surface are obviously affected by the length of time of the production and use of the ice surface, and the robot should identify the friction characteristics of the ice surface through visual and force detection information to establish the dynamic model of the robot and curling, so as to realize the robot motion characteristics planning and accurate curling throwing and hitting. The robot performed a curling performance during the Curling Competition at the Winter Olympics to cheer up the Olympians.
The robot transitions from pitching pots to standing and walking. Courtesy of Shanghai Jiao Tong University
According to reports, the six-legged curling robot can imitate the behavior of people throwing curling, has visual and force perception capabilities, can realize the digitization of curling throwing sports, become the daily training equipment for curling athletes, and can also assist athletes in decision-making and planning of curling, and give athletes as sparring. During the interval between curling competitions, curling robots or human-machine competitions can also add a lot of fun to curling competitions, let more people like curling, and stimulate young people's interest in science and technology. (End)