4 ms·

Festo's New Bionic Robots Include Rolling Spider, Flying Fox

114 points by clebio 9y ago

John_KZ 9y ago
It's great given to where we are right now on a technological level, but until we get decent artificial muscles, all biomemetic robots will look like a spastic person having uncontrolled convulsions.
- HappyRobot 9y ago
  I think you underestimate good engineering. The Festo Smartbird is a good counter example (https://www.festo.com/group/en/cms/10238.htm https://www.festo.com/group/en/cms/10238.htm). I'll agree that we still have a way to go with bipedal robots, but other biomemetric robots (Boston Dynamics) are very impressive these days.
  - louithethrid 9y ago
    Yes, it can fly very well- but can it fly in place, take off vertically, can it fold its wings - or start from water. Good engineering is polishing one finite set of movements to a mirror shine here. Artificial muscles would allow for controll, that allows for all this movements to be realized, without hitting the limitations of the admittetly very well working bionics shown .
- tlb 9y ago
  Muscles can move spastically too, while electric or fluid power can be smooth. It's mainly a function of the control software.
- syntaxing 9y ago
  Something like this?: https://www.festo.com/cms/en-us_us/15737_15744.htm https://www.festo.com/cms/en-us_us/15737_15744.htm
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
blhack 9y ago
If you're into robots, festo makes some of the coolest. Here was a previous one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxVf9QY_TFs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxVf9QY_TFs
aarongough 9y ago
I find Festo's work interesting, but the spider bot in particular looks really clunky overall in comparison to even some of the hobby level stuff that's out there. It would make sense to have a rolling robot if it was really fast (and could steer while rolling). Here's an example of a hexapod from 6 years ago, I believe built from a kit but running customized motion control code: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAeQn5QnyXo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAeQn5QnyXo Skip to 0:45 to see it running. Still amazing to me and I haven't seen too many other legged robots that look this smooth.
- adornedCupcake 9y ago
  It just rolls. It doesn't jump like the actual spider does.
- blacksmith_tb 9y ago
  There are some more recent kits[1] which come close. I wouldn't think it would take a big change to hexapods like these to give the legs a rounder profile to roll on, if they curled their legs like the Festo. 1: https://youtu.be/-Dt2yVR3FJQ https://youtu.be/-Dt2yVR3FJQ
  - ansible 9y ago
    I believe (please correct me if I'm wrong) that the kinematics for those two robots are pre-programmed, and will only work on flat surfaces with no obstacles. Yes, the main body does have an accelerometer which can sense its gross orientation, but if they're just using regular servos, there is no feedback from the legs to indicate height changes in the terrain or obstacles. Pre-programmed kinematics makes for a cool-looking demo, but isn't going to be super-useful for making an all-terrain robot successful. Compare that to what Ghost Robotics is doing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnKOeMoibLg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnKOeMoibLg In addition to the other capabilities shown, at the very end of the video it shows how quick and accurate the force feedback is.
    - scribu 9y ago
      That jump at 1:02 is spectacular! And the quick reflexes on the ice are also pretty impressive.
Overtonwindow 9y ago
Festo is absolutely fascinating. Their air penguin blew my mind.
ChuckMcM 9y ago
I love these guys! The Festo robotics group was one of the sponsors for our Battlebot back in the early naughts and unlike the other sponsors who were only concerned with how their logo would look on TV the Festo folks really got into the technical aspects of our designs. They went so far as to modify one of their pan head cylinder designs so that it would fit under the 'wedge' of our robot and allow us to throw another robot out of the ring. Sadly Battlebots had died before we really had a chance to try something like that out. I particularly like the gait work they have done with the rolling spider robot. Legged robots are good for really rough terrain and crap for efficiently going long distances. It is a good compromise.
billconan 9y ago
there was this toy https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulgtoys/pterodactyl-5-rc-flying-lizard https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulgtoys/pterodactyl-5... quite similar to this flying fox.

114 points by clebio 9y ago

It's great given to where we are right now on a technological level, but until we get decent artificial muscles, all biomemetic robots will look like a spastic person having uncontrolled convulsions.

HappyRobot 9y ago
I think you underestimate good engineering. The Festo Smartbird is a good counter example (https://www.festo.com/group/en/cms/10238.htm https://www.festo.com/group/en/cms/10238.htm). I'll agree that we still have a way to go with bipedal robots, but other biomemetric robots (Boston Dynamics) are very impressive these days.
- louithethrid 9y ago
  Yes, it can fly very well- but can it fly in place, take off vertically, can it fold its wings - or start from water. Good engineering is polishing one finite set of movements to a mirror shine here. Artificial muscles would allow for controll, that allows for all this movements to be realized, without hitting the limitations of the admittetly very well working bionics shown .
tlb 9y ago
Muscles can move spastically too, while electric or fluid power can be smooth. It's mainly a function of the control software.
syntaxing 9y ago
Something like this?: https://www.festo.com/cms/en-us_us/15737_15744.htm https://www.festo.com/cms/en-us_us/15737_15744.htm
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

blhack 9y ago

If you're into robots, festo makes some of the coolest. Here was a previous one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxVf9QY_TFs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxVf9QY_TFs

aarongough 9y ago

I find Festo's work interesting, but the spider bot in particular looks really clunky overall in comparison to even some of the hobby level stuff that's out there. It would make sense to have a rolling robot if it was really fast (and could steer while rolling). Here's an example of a hexapod from 6 years ago, I believe built from a kit but running customized motion control code: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAeQn5QnyXo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAeQn5QnyXo Skip to 0:45 to see it running. Still amazing to me and I haven't seen too many other legged robots that look this smooth.

adornedCupcake 9y ago
It just rolls. It doesn't jump like the actual spider does.
blacksmith_tb 9y ago
There are some more recent kits[1] which come close. I wouldn't think it would take a big change to hexapods like these to give the legs a rounder profile to roll on, if they curled their legs like the Festo. 1: https://youtu.be/-Dt2yVR3FJQ https://youtu.be/-Dt2yVR3FJQ
- ansible 9y ago
  I believe (please correct me if I'm wrong) that the kinematics for those two robots are pre-programmed, and will only work on flat surfaces with no obstacles. Yes, the main body does have an accelerometer which can sense its gross orientation, but if they're just using regular servos, there is no feedback from the legs to indicate height changes in the terrain or obstacles. Pre-programmed kinematics makes for a cool-looking demo, but isn't going to be super-useful for making an all-terrain robot successful. Compare that to what Ghost Robotics is doing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnKOeMoibLg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnKOeMoibLg In addition to the other capabilities shown, at the very end of the video it shows how quick and accurate the force feedback is.
  - scribu 9y ago
    That jump at 1:02 is spectacular! And the quick reflexes on the ice are also pretty impressive.

Overtonwindow 9y ago

Festo is absolutely fascinating. Their air penguin blew my mind.

ChuckMcM 9y ago

I love these guys! The Festo robotics group was one of the sponsors for our Battlebot back in the early naughts and unlike the other sponsors who were only concerned with how their logo would look on TV the Festo folks really got into the technical aspects of our designs. They went so far as to modify one of their pan head cylinder designs so that it would fit under the 'wedge' of our robot and allow us to throw another robot out of the ring. Sadly Battlebots had died before we really had a chance to try something like that out. I particularly like the gait work they have done with the rolling spider robot. Legged robots are good for really rough terrain and crap for efficiently going long distances. It is a good compromise.

billconan 9y ago

there was this toy https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulgtoys/pterodactyl-5-rc-flying-lizard https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulgtoys/pterodactyl-5... quite similar to this flying fox.