IT House February 19 news, according to Shanghai Jiao Tong University released, on the afternoon of February 18, a special robot "player" made its Winter Olympic debut in the "Ice Cube": curling throwing performance. Only to see it a pair of middle "legs" to support the body, a pair of rear "legs" pedaling starter, with a pair of front "legs" for the double "hands" to control the direction of curling and movement and rotation speed, hard to throw, hit the target!
This curling robot "player" is under the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology National Key Research and Development Program "Science and Technology Winter Olympics", led by Professor Gao Feng of the School of Mechanical and Power Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and developed by the research team of six-legged curling robot composed of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Shanghai Intelligent Manufacturing Function Platform Co., Ltd., and is the world's first six-legged curling robot that imitates human pedaling, supporting sliding and rotating curling behavior.
▲ Curling robots perform in the Ice Cube
Here's the video:
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. 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 stepper to realize the function of promoting the robot to accelerate the sliding, in addition, the front legs have the secondary throwing of the pot during the robot sliding movement to control the direction, speed and angular velocity of the curling movement, and realize the function of accurate jug throwing and hitting.
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 – a 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.
▲ The robot looks for a starter to change from standing to throwing pots
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 robot transitions from pot throwing to standing and walking
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.
▲ Robot throws pot to base camp
▲ Robot hit curling out of base camp
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 exercises, 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.
Curling originated in Scotland in the 14th century and was a fashionable sport at the time, and since 1998, curling has been listed as an official olympic sport. 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.