You might remember the pictures and video I shot of muRata Boy and Girl at CES earlier this year. If you liked those robots you will love the robot that Masahiko Yamaguchi built. This Bipedal Cycling Robot is quite small but when it comes to robotics small is usually more challenging. This tiny robot drives the bike just like a human does! Watch the video below to be blown away.
Thanks for the tip Erik.
That was really really impressive!
And it also has part cute factor build in as well.
This is really nothing short of amazing! In fact, if I remember anything from learning to ride a bike (admittedly, some 40 years ago, so I’m probably missing some important parts of it by now 🙂 ), then starting and stopping was the hardest part, not even so much the riding in and of itself. And the little robot seems to have no trouble starting and stopping whatsoever!
I looked really hard but could not really catch the moment it lifts its feet off the ground and catches the pedals. Does it require the pedals to be in a particular position for that? Does not seem like it – it just stops and then picks right from there, so even if the pedals are carefully positioned, it’s not too obvious. If I had to program the robot, I would have no clue as to even where to start the sequence of moves to put the feet on the pedals if they were positioned at random – looks like so much can go wrong that it most likely will.
Anyways, this is a great find and an amazing feat of robot motion programming (to say nothing of the balance feedback of course – but that’s a whole separate story)!