11 ms·

Home-made robot doing a perfect quadruple backflip [video]

243 points by evab 13y ago

aspensmonster 13y ago
Well that was cool. But the page doesn't exactly have much in the way of words. Despite the spammy nature of the newslamp.com domain --and despite the spammy nature of the youtube video being in response to Katy Perry's Part of Me music video-- any idea what microcontroller is being used? EDIT: And now this video is rocketing to the top of reddit, number two at the moment. Video is on liveleak.com. Way to give the actual producer credit, internet.
- eksith 13y ago
  To be fair, there have been far more interesting posts on HN that were ignored because it was only a YouTube video. Would you be commenting if it wasn't linked to a different site (however spammy looking the domain)?
  - aspensmonster 13y ago
    Of course! I wanted to know the micro-controller used :) Looks like gilgoomesh has a direct link to the creator's actual youtube account as well, not the embedded rip-off from youtube user chrill22, which looks like a typical view farmer. It looks like chrill22 took hinamitetu's "Quadruple Backflip(NO.16)" video, trimmed out the part where hinamitetu was setting the robot up, and then re-upped it. Absolutely infuriating. And judging by bradleyjoyce, it looks like there's more technical info to be found, albeit in a language I don't understand.
    - eksith 13y ago
      That, I'm not too sure of, but it's more than likely a PIC-16 or 18 series. There's a nice write-up from last year on using a PIC16F628A and four servos to build a walking robot. http://www.academia.edu/1767517/Walking_Robot_with_Four_Servomotors http://www.academia.edu/1767517/Walking_Robot_with_Four_Serv... If you're the tinkering type, it's quite an interesting read. Of course, that's a long way away from a robot that does backflips ;)
      - zokier 13y ago
        One video shows it having PIC16F873: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UijyM-2S2f4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UijyM-2S2f4 Another video has some sort of details in the description, although they are bit mysterious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyEua6kL00M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyEua6kL00M "AD conversion is not performed." meaning that the main feedback is analogue? That'd be interesting indeed.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
gilgoomesh 13y ago
This robot is made by Japanese amateur roboticist Hinamitetu. There are lots more acrobatic feats on his YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/hinamitetu?feature=watch https://www.youtube.com/user/hinamitetu?feature=watch
- bradleyjoyce 13y ago
  Google translate of his about page on youtube: I used a 2-axis acceleration sensor. Is located in the head it. It then measures the gravity mainly. The measured value, by the angle of rotation will change me. --- I will zero gravity measurement value measurements of the axis when the axis of the sensor was leveled to the ground ---. Position in the rotation I was divided into four regions. To detect the falling signal rising and in (up, down, left, right) the boundary position. (With a threshold detection value zero gravity fall detection circuit and rising that). I was triggered by a combination of (H, L signal using the threshold as zero gravity detection value) of H and the raw signal, L signal. Based on these signals, and to determine when to stretch or bend the leg.
  - edvinbesic 13y ago
    Am I the only one who read that like a poem?
    - ghotli 13y ago
      No. It's beautiful.
    - Nux 13y ago
      Sounds like the Hybrids in BSG! :D
- scribu 13y ago
  When I saw the guy setting the robot up in the original video, I realized that it's quite a bit larger than I initially thought. Still, pretty damn impressive!
sdfjkl 13y ago
A little more background on this would be interesting.
- cmorgan 13y ago
  this has a little more info: http://www.gizmag.com/home-made-gymnast-robot/24961/ http://www.gizmag.com/home-made-gymnast-robot/24961/
forgotAgain 13y ago
And it even stuck the landing. Very cool.
- kirkus 13y ago
  yes very cool...however more info would be good.
- thejsjunky 13y ago
  Literally, a different robot but it looks like he puts adhesive gel on the feet to help the landing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mF9_25hOBdo http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mF9_2...
carl689 13y ago
Looks like this is the link to the original video at the creators account. http://youtu.be/4M0jhAuAuJI http://youtu.be/4M0jhAuAuJI
- mratzloff 13y ago
  Here's one by the same guy that is even more impressive. Several robots do double flips and then grab the bar again! http://youtu.be/ckbC0PTfCRE http://youtu.be/ckbC0PTfCRE
wikiburner 13y ago
The sound when it goes slow-mo is my new favorite ambient/drone track.
GIFtheory 13y ago
Cool, but not as cool as this, which was done in the early 90's: http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/robots/3D_biped/3D_biped_flip.mpeg http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/robots/3D_biped/3D_bip...
- ferdo 13y ago
  OP's robot was made by a guy at his house. That's the difference. Imagine where we'll be in 20 years.
DanBC 13y ago
It'd be really nice if a mod could edit the URL to the actual content creator, so that s/he gets some YouTube likes and subscribes.
- marchra 13y ago
  yes noticed that too. Some Katy Perry spam BS. real url is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M0jhAuAuJI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M0jhAuAuJI
- jnbiche 13y ago
  Agreed, can a mod pretty please edit the URL so the actual creator gets credit?
  - future_grad 13y ago
    Success!
circa 13y ago
that is sweet. when do the robot Olympics start?
WA 13y ago
Love the trashy surroundings with all that junk on the left hand side, little curtains and whatnot. Reminds me of Sci-Fi movies from the 80s :)
future_grad 13y ago
Nice submission history, evab. Newslamp, newslamp, newslamp, newslamp. Post the original content.
- DanBC 13y ago
  Just for fun, here's some graphs. (http://imgur.com/a/dlhna http://imgur.com/a/dlhna) PS: Thanks mods, for editing the URL!
mromanuk 13y ago
Really impressive. How many backflips a human can do?
restlessmedia 13y ago
I would have marked him down for his build up but the execution and landing get top marks. Amazing.
redrocket 13y ago
I envy the next generation of kids. Way back in the age of bell-bottoms and butterfly collars, I only had Legos to manifest my imagination, they'll most likely have robotic gremlins.
asciimo 13y ago
I like this video called "Bloopers" featuring some of the successful bot's older family members. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7eUvuruw7E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7eUvuruw7E

243 points by evab 13y ago

Well that was cool. But the page doesn't exactly have much in the way of words. Despite the spammy nature of the newslamp.com domain --and despite the spammy nature of the youtube video being in response to Katy Perry's Part of Me music video-- any idea what microcontroller is being used? EDIT: And now this video is rocketing to the top of reddit, number two at the moment. Video is on liveleak.com. Way to give the actual producer credit, internet.

eksith 13y ago
To be fair, there have been far more interesting posts on HN that were ignored because it was only a YouTube video. Would you be commenting if it wasn't linked to a different site (however spammy looking the domain)?
- aspensmonster 13y ago
  Of course! I wanted to know the micro-controller used :) Looks like gilgoomesh has a direct link to the creator's actual youtube account as well, not the embedded rip-off from youtube user chrill22, which looks like a typical view farmer. It looks like chrill22 took hinamitetu's "Quadruple Backflip(NO.16)" video, trimmed out the part where hinamitetu was setting the robot up, and then re-upped it. Absolutely infuriating. And judging by bradleyjoyce, it looks like there's more technical info to be found, albeit in a language I don't understand.
  - eksith 13y ago
    That, I'm not too sure of, but it's more than likely a PIC-16 or 18 series. There's a nice write-up from last year on using a PIC16F628A and four servos to build a walking robot. http://www.academia.edu/1767517/Walking_Robot_with_Four_Servomotors http://www.academia.edu/1767517/Walking_Robot_with_Four_Serv... If you're the tinkering type, it's quite an interesting read. Of course, that's a long way away from a robot that does backflips ;)
    - zokier 13y ago
      One video shows it having PIC16F873: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UijyM-2S2f4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UijyM-2S2f4 Another video has some sort of details in the description, although they are bit mysterious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyEua6kL00M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyEua6kL00M "AD conversion is not performed." meaning that the main feedback is analogue? That'd be interesting indeed.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

gilgoomesh 13y ago

This robot is made by Japanese amateur roboticist Hinamitetu. There are lots more acrobatic feats on his YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/hinamitetu?feature=watch https://www.youtube.com/user/hinamitetu?feature=watch

bradleyjoyce 13y ago
Google translate of his about page on youtube: I used a 2-axis acceleration sensor. Is located in the head it. It then measures the gravity mainly. The measured value, by the angle of rotation will change me. --- I will zero gravity measurement value measurements of the axis when the axis of the sensor was leveled to the ground ---. Position in the rotation I was divided into four regions. To detect the falling signal rising and in (up, down, left, right) the boundary position. (With a threshold detection value zero gravity fall detection circuit and rising that). I was triggered by a combination of (H, L signal using the threshold as zero gravity detection value) of H and the raw signal, L signal. Based on these signals, and to determine when to stretch or bend the leg.
- edvinbesic 13y ago
  Am I the only one who read that like a poem?
  - ghotli 13y ago
    No. It's beautiful.
  - Nux 13y ago
    Sounds like the Hybrids in BSG! :D
scribu 13y ago
When I saw the guy setting the robot up in the original video, I realized that it's quite a bit larger than I initially thought. Still, pretty damn impressive!

sdfjkl 13y ago

A little more background on this would be interesting.

cmorgan 13y ago
this has a little more info: http://www.gizmag.com/home-made-gymnast-robot/24961/ http://www.gizmag.com/home-made-gymnast-robot/24961/

forgotAgain 13y ago

And it even stuck the landing. Very cool.

kirkus 13y ago
yes very cool...however more info would be good.
thejsjunky 13y ago
Literally, a different robot but it looks like he puts adhesive gel on the feet to help the landing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mF9_25hOBdo http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mF9_2...

carl689 13y ago

Looks like this is the link to the original video at the creators account. http://youtu.be/4M0jhAuAuJI http://youtu.be/4M0jhAuAuJI

mratzloff 13y ago
Here's one by the same guy that is even more impressive. Several robots do double flips and then grab the bar again! http://youtu.be/ckbC0PTfCRE http://youtu.be/ckbC0PTfCRE

wikiburner 13y ago

The sound when it goes slow-mo is my new favorite ambient/drone track.

GIFtheory 13y ago

Cool, but not as cool as this, which was done in the early 90's: http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/robots/3D_biped/3D_biped_flip.mpeg http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/robots/3D_biped/3D_bip...

ferdo 13y ago
OP's robot was made by a guy at his house. That's the difference. Imagine where we'll be in 20 years.

DanBC 13y ago

It'd be really nice if a mod could edit the URL to the actual content creator, so that s/he gets some YouTube likes and subscribes.

marchra 13y ago
yes noticed that too. Some Katy Perry spam BS. real url is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M0jhAuAuJI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M0jhAuAuJI
jnbiche 13y ago
Agreed, can a mod pretty please edit the URL so the actual creator gets credit?
- future_grad 13y ago
  Success!

circa 13y ago

that is sweet. when do the robot Olympics start?

WA 13y ago

Love the trashy surroundings with all that junk on the left hand side, little curtains and whatnot. Reminds me of Sci-Fi movies from the 80s :)

future_grad 13y ago

Nice submission history, evab. Newslamp, newslamp, newslamp, newslamp. Post the original content.

DanBC 13y ago
Just for fun, here's some graphs. (http://imgur.com/a/dlhna http://imgur.com/a/dlhna) PS: Thanks mods, for editing the URL!

mromanuk 13y ago

Really impressive. How many backflips a human can do?

restlessmedia 13y ago

I would have marked him down for his build up but the execution and landing get top marks. Amazing.

redrocket 13y ago

I envy the next generation of kids. Way back in the age of bell-bottoms and butterfly collars, I only had Legos to manifest my imagination, they'll most likely have robotic gremlins.

asciimo 13y ago

I like this video called "Bloopers" featuring some of the successful bot's older family members. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7eUvuruw7E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7eUvuruw7E