1 00:00:17,706 --> 00:00:19,267 Thanks for having me. 2 00:00:19,267 --> 00:00:23,231 We have too many really exciting robotics works that I want to show you 3 00:00:23,231 --> 00:00:25,036 but we only have 18 minutes, 4 00:00:25,036 --> 00:00:28,391 so I really had a hard time trying to cut down the slides. 5 00:00:28,391 --> 00:00:30,576 But let's see how it goes, we have 18 minutes 6 00:00:30,576 --> 00:00:34,507 and an apology in advance, I'm probably going to speak really fast. 7 00:00:34,507 --> 00:00:37,951 So, the first robot I'll talk about is called STriDER. 8 00:00:37,951 --> 00:00:41,467 It stands for Self-excited Tripedal Dynamic Experimental Robot. 9 00:00:41,467 --> 00:00:43,126 It's a robot that has three legs, 10 00:00:43,126 --> 00:00:45,856 which is inspired by nature. 11 00:00:45,856 --> 00:00:48,031 But have you seen anything in nature, 12 00:00:48,031 --> 00:00:49,871 an animal that has three legs? 13 00:00:49,871 --> 00:00:51,009 Probably not. 14 00:00:51,009 --> 00:00:53,554 So, why do I call this a biologically inspired robot? 15 00:00:53,554 --> 00:00:54,755 How would it work? 16 00:00:54,755 --> 00:00:57,060 But before that, let's look at pop culture. 17 00:00:57,060 --> 00:01:00,770 So, you know H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds," novel and movie. 18 00:01:00,770 --> 00:01:02,098 And what you see over here 19 00:01:02,098 --> 00:01:04,157 is a very popular video game, 20 00:01:04,157 --> 00:01:07,183 and in this fiction they describe these alien creatures 21 00:01:07,183 --> 00:01:09,993 and robots that have three legs that terrorize Earth. 22 00:01:09,993 --> 00:01:13,842 But my robot, STriDER, does not move like this. 23 00:01:13,842 --> 00:01:15,252 So, how does it work? 24 00:01:15,252 --> 00:01:18,000 So, this is an actual dynamic simulation animation. 25 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:20,333 I'm just going to show you how the robot works. 26 00:01:20,333 --> 00:01:22,139 So when I go to robotics conferences, 27 00:01:22,139 --> 00:01:24,167 I show this video to some of my colleagues 28 00:01:24,167 --> 00:01:26,919 and everybody goes, wow, this is cool. 29 00:01:26,919 --> 00:01:29,496 So when I click this, it's going to show an animation, 30 00:01:29,496 --> 00:01:32,144 so everybody say "Ooh" and "Aah". 31 00:01:33,445 --> 00:01:35,052 Ooh. 32 00:01:36,575 --> 00:01:38,819 Aah. Isn't that cool? 33 00:01:40,165 --> 00:01:42,308 It flips its body 180 degrees 34 00:01:42,308 --> 00:01:45,428 and it swings its leg between the two legs and catches the fall. 35 00:01:45,428 --> 00:01:46,793 So, that's how it walks. 36 00:01:46,793 --> 00:01:49,996 If you think about it, it looks very complicated, almost organic. 37 00:01:49,996 --> 00:01:51,608 But why are we trying to do this? 38 00:01:51,608 --> 00:01:53,572 How is this biologically inspired? 39 00:01:53,572 --> 00:01:55,606 Let me talk about it a little bit. 40 00:01:55,606 --> 00:01:58,560 So, when you look at us human beings, bipedal walking, 41 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:01,049 what you're doing is you're not really using a muscle 42 00:02:01,049 --> 00:02:03,896 to lift your leg and walk like a robot. Right? 43 00:02:03,896 --> 00:02:07,303 What you're doing is you really swing your leg and catch the fall, 44 00:02:07,303 --> 00:02:09,964 stand up again, swing your leg and catch the fall. 45 00:02:09,964 --> 00:02:13,109 You're using your built-in dynamics, the physics of your body, 46 00:02:13,109 --> 00:02:14,887 just like a pendulum. 47 00:02:14,887 --> 00:02:18,309 We call that the concept of passive dynamic locomotion. 48 00:02:18,309 --> 00:02:21,469 What you're doing is, when you stand up, 49 00:02:21,469 --> 00:02:23,698 potential energy to kinetic energy, 50 00:02:23,698 --> 00:02:25,468 potential energy to kinetic energy. 51 00:02:25,468 --> 00:02:27,768 It's a constantly falling process. 52 00:02:27,768 --> 00:02:30,800 So, even though there is nothing in nature that looks like this, 53 00:02:30,800 --> 00:02:32,537 really, we were inspired by biology 54 00:02:32,537 --> 00:02:35,954 and applying the principles of walking to this robot. 55 00:02:35,954 --> 00:02:38,648 Thus it's a biologically inspired robot. 56 00:02:38,648 --> 00:02:41,473 What you see over here, this is what we want to do next. 57 00:02:41,473 --> 00:02:44,864 We want to fold up the legs and shoot it up for long-range motion. 58 00:02:44,864 --> 00:02:47,588 And it deploys legs - it looks almost like "Star Wars" - 59 00:02:47,588 --> 00:02:50,469 when it lands, it absorbs the shock and starts walking. 60 00:02:50,469 --> 00:02:54,161 What you see over here, this yellow thing, this is not a death ray. (Laughter) 61 00:02:54,161 --> 00:02:56,529 This is just to show you that if you have cameras 62 00:02:56,529 --> 00:02:58,044 or different types of sensors - 63 00:02:58,044 --> 00:03:00,114 because it is tall, it's 1.8 meters tall - 64 00:03:00,114 --> 00:03:03,215 you can see over obstacles like bushes and those kinds of things. 65 00:03:03,215 --> 00:03:04,589 So we have two prototypes. 66 00:03:04,589 --> 00:03:07,529 The first version, in the back, that's STriDER I. 67 00:03:07,529 --> 00:03:10,193 One of the problems that we had with STriDER I - 68 00:03:10,193 --> 00:03:12,768 The one in front, the smaller, is STriDER II. 69 00:03:12,768 --> 00:03:14,804 The problem that we had with STriDER I is 70 00:03:14,804 --> 00:03:16,544 it was just too heavy in the body. 71 00:03:16,544 --> 00:03:19,162 We had so many motors, you know, aligning the joints, 72 00:03:19,162 --> 00:03:20,514 and those kinds of things. 73 00:03:20,514 --> 00:03:23,486 So, we decided to synthesize a mechanical mechanism 74 00:03:23,486 --> 00:03:26,498 so we could get rid of all the motors, and with a single motor 75 00:03:26,498 --> 00:03:28,271 we can coordinate all the motions. 76 00:03:28,271 --> 00:03:32,427 It's a mechanical solution to a problem, instead of using mechatronics. 77 00:03:32,540 --> 00:03:35,550 So, with this now the top body is light enough. 78 00:03:35,550 --> 00:03:39,135 So, it's walking in our lab; this was the very first successful step. 79 00:03:39,135 --> 00:03:41,599 It's still not perfected - its coffee falls down - 80 00:03:41,599 --> 00:03:43,739 so we still have a lot of work to do. 81 00:03:44,083 --> 00:03:46,716 The second robot I want to talk about is called IMPASS. 82 00:03:46,716 --> 00:03:47,605 It stands for 83 00:03:47,605 --> 00:03:51,035 Intelligent Mobility Platform with Actuated Spoke System. 84 00:03:51,035 --> 00:03:53,882 So, it's a wheel-leg hybrid robot. 85 00:03:53,882 --> 00:03:56,020 So, think of a rimless wheel 86 00:03:56,020 --> 00:03:57,630 or a spoke wheel, 87 00:03:57,630 --> 00:04:01,003 but the spokes individually move in and out of the hub; 88 00:04:01,003 --> 00:04:02,877 so, it's a wheel-leg hybrid. 89 00:04:02,877 --> 00:04:05,413 We are literally re-inventing the wheel here. 90 00:04:05,413 --> 00:04:07,503 Let me demonstrate how it works. 91 00:04:07,503 --> 00:04:09,845 So, in this video we're using an approach 92 00:04:09,845 --> 00:04:11,974 called the reactive approach. 93 00:04:11,974 --> 00:04:14,788 Just simply using the tactile sensors on the feet, 94 00:04:14,788 --> 00:04:17,821 it's trying to walk over a changing terrain, 95 00:04:17,821 --> 00:04:20,726 a soft terrain where it pushes down and changes. 96 00:04:20,726 --> 00:04:22,710 And just by the tactile information, 97 00:04:22,710 --> 00:04:25,742 it successfully crosses over these type of terrain. 98 00:04:25,742 --> 00:04:29,100 But, when it encounters a very extreme terrain, 99 00:04:29,100 --> 00:04:32,814 in this case, this obstacle is more than three times 100 00:04:32,814 --> 00:04:34,951 the height of the robot, 101 00:04:34,951 --> 00:04:36,884 Then it switches to a deliberate mode, 102 00:04:36,884 --> 00:04:38,989 where it uses a laser range finder, 103 00:04:38,989 --> 00:04:41,961 and camera systems, to identify the obstacle and the size, 104 00:04:41,961 --> 00:04:44,962 and it plans, carefully plans the motion of the spokes 105 00:04:44,962 --> 00:04:47,094 and coordinates it so that it can show this 106 00:04:47,094 --> 00:04:49,004 kind of very very impressive mobility. 107 00:04:49,004 --> 00:04:51,597 You probably haven't seen anything like this out there. 108 00:04:51,597 --> 00:04:53,582 This is a very high mobility robot 109 00:04:53,582 --> 00:04:55,921 that we developed called IMPASS. 110 00:04:56,468 --> 00:05:00,422 When you drive your car, when you steer it, 111 00:05:00,422 --> 00:05:02,468 you use a method called Ackermann steering, 112 00:05:02,468 --> 00:05:04,508 the front wheels rotate like this. 113 00:05:05,339 --> 00:05:09,738 But most of the small wheeled robots use a method called differential steering 114 00:05:09,738 --> 00:05:12,539 where the left and right wheel turn in opposite directions. 115 00:05:12,858 --> 00:05:16,013 For IMPASS, we can do many, many different types of motion. 116 00:05:16,013 --> 00:05:19,583 For example, in this case, even though the left and right wheel is connected 117 00:05:19,583 --> 00:05:22,369 with a single axle rotating at the same angle of velocity, 118 00:05:22,369 --> 00:05:24,462 we just simply change the length of the spoke. 119 00:05:24,462 --> 00:05:27,812 It affects the diameter and then can turn to the left and to the right. 120 00:05:27,812 --> 00:05:29,184 These are just some examples 121 00:05:29,184 --> 00:05:31,429 of the neat things that we can do with IMPASS. 122 00:05:31,429 --> 00:05:33,414 This robot is called CLIMBeR: 123 00:05:33,414 --> 00:05:36,619 Cable-suspended Limbed Intelligent Matching Behavior Robot. 124 00:05:36,619 --> 00:05:39,577 So, I've been talking to a lot of NASA JPL scientists - 125 00:05:39,577 --> 00:05:41,626 at JPL they are famous for the Mars rovers - 126 00:05:41,626 --> 00:05:44,001 and the scientists, geologists always tell me 127 00:05:44,001 --> 00:05:46,122 that the real interesting science, 128 00:05:46,122 --> 00:05:48,759 the science-rich sites, are always at the cliffs. 129 00:05:48,759 --> 00:05:51,271 But the current rovers cannot get there. 130 00:05:51,271 --> 00:05:53,904 So, inspired by that we wanted to build a robot 131 00:05:53,904 --> 00:05:57,037 that can climb a structured cliff environment. 132 00:05:57,037 --> 00:05:58,716 So, this is CLIMBeR. 133 00:05:58,716 --> 00:06:01,511 So, what it does, it has three legs. It's difficult to see, 134 00:06:01,511 --> 00:06:03,584 but it has a winch and a cable at the top - 135 00:06:03,584 --> 00:06:06,417 and it tries to figure out the best place to put its foot. 136 00:06:06,417 --> 00:06:08,283 And then once it figures that out 137 00:06:08,283 --> 00:06:10,805 in real time, it calculates the force distribution: 138 00:06:10,805 --> 00:06:13,285 how much force it needs to exert to the surface 139 00:06:13,285 --> 00:06:15,228 so it doesn't tip and doesn't slip. 140 00:06:15,228 --> 00:06:17,489 Once it stabilizes that, it lifts a foot, 141 00:06:17,489 --> 00:06:21,016 and then with the winch it can climb up these kinds of thing. 142 00:06:21,333 --> 00:06:24,405 Also for search and rescue applications as well. 143 00:06:24,876 --> 00:06:28,465 This robot is called MARS: Multi-Appendage Robotic System. 144 00:06:28,465 --> 00:06:30,815 Five years ago I actually worked at NASA JPL 145 00:06:30,815 --> 00:06:33,053 during the summer as a faculty fellow. 146 00:06:33,053 --> 00:06:36,466 And they already had a six legged robot called LEMUR. 147 00:06:36,466 --> 00:06:39,003 So, this is actually based on that. 148 00:06:39,297 --> 00:06:40,820 So, it's a hexapod robot. 149 00:06:40,820 --> 00:06:42,760 We developed our adaptive gait planner. 150 00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:45,330 We actually have a very interesting payload on there. 151 00:06:45,330 --> 00:06:47,044 The students like to have fun. 152 00:06:47,044 --> 00:06:49,280 It shows very interesting mobility, 153 00:06:49,280 --> 00:06:53,456 and here you can see that it's walking over a structured terrain. 154 00:06:53,456 --> 00:06:56,731 It's little bit difficult to see, in the videos over here, 155 00:06:56,731 --> 00:07:00,143 it's trying to walk on the coastal terrain, sandy area, 156 00:07:00,143 --> 00:07:04,887 but depending on the moisture content or the grain size of the sand 157 00:07:04,887 --> 00:07:07,640 the foot's soil sinkage model changes. 158 00:07:07,710 --> 00:07:09,427 So, it tries to adapt its gait 159 00:07:09,427 --> 00:07:12,158 to successfully cross over these kind of things. 160 00:07:12,158 --> 00:07:14,627 It also does some fun stuff, as you can imagine. 161 00:07:14,627 --> 00:07:16,953 We get so many visitors visiting our lab. 162 00:07:16,953 --> 00:07:19,801 So, when the visitors come, MARS walks up to the computer, 163 00:07:19,801 --> 00:07:21,985 starts typing "Hello, my name is MARS. 164 00:07:21,985 --> 00:07:23,266 Welcome to RoMeLa, 165 00:07:23,266 --> 00:07:26,361 the Robotics Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech." 166 00:07:28,202 --> 00:07:30,448 This robot is an amoeba robot. 167 00:07:30,448 --> 00:07:33,292 Now, we don't have enough time to go into technical details, 168 00:07:33,292 --> 00:07:35,934 I'll just show you some of the experiments. 169 00:07:35,935 --> 00:07:38,512 So, this is some of the early feasibility experiments. 170 00:07:38,512 --> 00:07:41,857 We store potential energy to the elastic skin to make it move. 171 00:07:41,857 --> 00:07:45,500 Or use active tension cords to make it move forward and backward. 172 00:07:45,500 --> 00:07:50,166 We've also been working with scientists and engineers from UPenn 173 00:07:50,166 --> 00:07:53,765 to come up with a chemically actuated version of this Amoeba robot. 174 00:07:53,775 --> 00:07:56,200 We do something to something, 175 00:07:56,200 --> 00:08:00,548 and just like magic, it moves. The blob. 176 00:08:02,086 --> 00:08:03,997 It's called ChIMERA. 177 00:08:04,106 --> 00:08:06,130 This robot is a very recent project. 178 00:08:06,130 --> 00:08:07,691 It's called RAPHaEL. 179 00:08:07,691 --> 00:08:10,239 Robotic Air Powered Hand with Elastic Ligaments. 180 00:08:10,239 --> 00:08:14,020 There are a lot of really neat, very good robotic hands out there in the market. 181 00:08:14,020 --> 00:08:17,422 The problem is they're just too expensive, tens of thousands of dollars. 182 00:08:17,422 --> 00:08:20,459 So, for prosthesis applications it's probably not too practical, 183 00:08:20,459 --> 00:08:22,209 because it's not affordable. 184 00:08:22,209 --> 00:08:25,367 We wanted to go tackle this problem in a very different direction. 185 00:08:25,367 --> 00:08:28,533 Instead of using electrical motors, electromechanical actuators, 186 00:08:28,533 --> 00:08:30,280 we're using compressed air. 187 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:32,973 We developed these novel actuators for joints. 188 00:08:32,973 --> 00:08:35,368 It is compliant. You can actually change the force, 189 00:08:35,368 --> 00:08:37,490 simply just changing the air pressure. 190 00:08:37,490 --> 00:08:39,759 And it can actually crush an empty soda can. 191 00:08:39,759 --> 00:08:43,059 It can pick up very delicate objects like a raw egg, 192 00:08:43,059 --> 00:08:45,211 or in this case, a lightbulb. 193 00:08:45,211 --> 00:08:48,909 The best part, it took only $200 dollars to make the first prototype. 194 00:08:49,946 --> 00:08:53,054 This robot is actually a family of snake robots 195 00:08:53,054 --> 00:08:54,421 that we call HyDRAS, 196 00:08:54,421 --> 00:08:57,112 Hyper Degrees-of-freedom Robotic Articulated Serpentine. 197 00:08:57,112 --> 00:09:00,331 The one that you see over here - you can see it outdoors in the lobby 198 00:09:00,331 --> 00:09:03,367 we actually have a demo, please stop by during the break time. 199 00:09:03,367 --> 00:09:05,494 This is a robot that can climb structures. 200 00:09:05,494 --> 00:09:07,488 This is a HyDRAS's arm. 201 00:09:07,488 --> 00:09:09,493 It's a 12 degrees of freedom robotic arm. 202 00:09:09,493 --> 00:09:11,724 But the cool part is the user interface. 203 00:09:11,724 --> 00:09:14,554 The cable over there, that's an optical fiber. 204 00:09:14,554 --> 00:09:16,969 And this student, probably the first time using it, 205 00:09:16,969 --> 00:09:19,166 but she can articulate it many different ways. 206 00:09:19,166 --> 00:09:21,564 So, for example in Iraq, you know, the war zone, 207 00:09:21,564 --> 00:09:23,038 there is roadside bombs. 208 00:09:23,038 --> 00:09:26,774 Currently you send these remotely controlled vehicles that are armed. 209 00:09:26,774 --> 00:09:29,081 It takes really a lot of time and it's expensive 210 00:09:29,081 --> 00:09:32,278 to train the operator to operate this complex arm. 211 00:09:32,512 --> 00:09:34,247 In this case it's very intuitive; 212 00:09:34,247 --> 00:09:36,465 this student, probably his first time using it, 213 00:09:36,465 --> 00:09:38,478 doing very complex manipulation tasks, 214 00:09:38,478 --> 00:09:42,005 picking up objects and doing manipulation, just like that. 215 00:09:42,810 --> 00:09:44,100 Very intuitive. 216 00:09:46,066 --> 00:09:48,634 Now, this robot is currently our star robot. 217 00:09:48,634 --> 00:09:51,835 We actually have a fan club for the robot, DARwIn: 218 00:09:51,835 --> 00:09:54,624 Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence. 219 00:09:54,624 --> 00:09:58,040 As you know, we are very interested in human walking, 220 00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:00,543 so we decided to build a small humanoid robot. 221 00:10:00,543 --> 00:10:02,349 This was in 2004; at that time, 222 00:10:02,349 --> 00:10:04,326 this was something really revolutionary. 223 00:10:04,326 --> 00:10:06,153 This was more of a feasibility study: 224 00:10:06,153 --> 00:10:07,819 What kind of motors should we use? 225 00:10:07,819 --> 00:10:10,507 Is it even possible? What kinds of controls should we do? 226 00:10:10,507 --> 00:10:12,267 So, this does not have any sensors. 227 00:10:12,267 --> 00:10:13,976 So, it's an open loop control. 228 00:10:13,976 --> 00:10:16,742 For those who probably know, if you don't have any sensors 229 00:10:16,742 --> 00:10:19,699 and there are any disturbances, you know what happens. 230 00:10:20,126 --> 00:10:21,950 (Laughter) 231 00:10:21,950 --> 00:10:24,590 So, based on that success, the following year 232 00:10:24,590 --> 00:10:26,780 we did the proper mechanical design 233 00:10:26,780 --> 00:10:28,344 starting from kinematics. 234 00:10:28,344 --> 00:10:30,962 And thus, DARwIn I was born in 2005. 235 00:10:30,962 --> 00:10:33,603 It stands up, it walks - very impressive. 236 00:10:33,603 --> 00:10:36,799 However, still, as you can see, it has a cord, umbilical cord. 237 00:10:36,799 --> 00:10:39,060 So, we're still using an external power source 238 00:10:39,060 --> 00:10:41,264 and external computation. 239 00:10:41,896 --> 00:10:44,929 So, in 2006, now it's really time to have fun. 240 00:10:44,929 --> 00:10:46,487 Let's give it intelligence. 241 00:10:46,487 --> 00:10:48,560 We give it all the computing power it needs: 242 00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:50,192 a 1.5 gigahertz Pentium M chip, 243 00:10:50,192 --> 00:10:52,581 two FireWire cameras, rate gyros, accelerometers, 244 00:10:52,581 --> 00:10:55,342 four force sensors on the foot, lithium polymer batteries. 245 00:10:55,342 --> 00:10:58,957 And now DARwIn II is completely autonomous. 246 00:10:58,957 --> 00:11:00,761 It is not remote controlled. 247 00:11:00,761 --> 00:11:03,722 There are no tethers. It looks around, searches for the ball, 248 00:11:03,722 --> 00:11:07,612 looks around, searches for the ball, and it tries to play a game of soccer, 249 00:11:07,612 --> 00:11:10,203 autonomously: artificial intelligence. 250 00:11:10,541 --> 00:11:14,188 Let's see how it does. This was our very first trial, and... 251 00:11:14,188 --> 00:11:17,474 (Video): Spectators: Goal! 252 00:11:18,998 --> 00:11:22,171 Dennis Hong: So, there is actually a competition called RoboCup. 253 00:11:22,171 --> 00:11:24,747 I don't know how many of you have heard about RoboCup. 254 00:11:24,747 --> 00:11:29,087 It's an international autonomous robot soccer competition. 255 00:11:29,087 --> 00:11:31,955 And the goal of RoboCup, the actual goal is, 256 00:11:31,955 --> 00:11:33,883 by the year 2050 257 00:11:33,883 --> 00:11:37,935 we want to have full size, autonomous humanoid robots 258 00:11:37,935 --> 00:11:40,902 play soccer against the human World Cup champions 259 00:11:40,902 --> 00:11:42,256 and win. 260 00:11:42,939 --> 00:11:45,523 It's a true actual goal. It's a very ambitious goal, 261 00:11:45,523 --> 00:11:47,728 but we truly believe that we can do it. 262 00:11:47,728 --> 00:11:49,706 So, this is last year in China. 263 00:11:49,706 --> 00:11:52,688 We were the very first team in the United States that qualified 264 00:11:52,688 --> 00:11:54,824 in the humanoid RoboCup competition. 265 00:11:54,824 --> 00:11:56,945 This is this year in Austria. 266 00:11:56,945 --> 00:11:59,659 You're going to see the action, three against three, 267 00:11:59,659 --> 00:12:01,635 completely autonomous. 268 00:12:01,635 --> 00:12:03,204 There you go. Yes! 269 00:12:04,598 --> 00:12:06,126 The robots track and they 270 00:12:06,126 --> 00:12:08,308 team play amongst themselves. 271 00:12:08,918 --> 00:12:11,320 It's very impressive. It's really a research event 272 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:15,159 packaged in a more exciting competition event. 273 00:12:16,893 --> 00:12:19,060 What you see over here, this is the beautiful 274 00:12:19,060 --> 00:12:20,844 Louis Vuitton Cup trophy. 275 00:12:20,844 --> 00:12:22,523 So, this is for the best humanoid, 276 00:12:22,523 --> 00:12:25,179 and we would like to bring this for the very first time, 277 00:12:25,179 --> 00:12:27,419 to the United States next year, so wish us luck. 278 00:12:27,419 --> 00:12:28,631 (Applause) 279 00:12:28,631 --> 00:12:29,842 Thank you. 280 00:12:32,124 --> 00:12:34,045 DARwIn also has a lot of other talents. 281 00:12:34,045 --> 00:12:37,876 Last year it actually conducted the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra 282 00:12:37,876 --> 00:12:40,300 for the holiday concert. 283 00:12:40,300 --> 00:12:43,013 This is the next generation robot, DARwIn IV, 284 00:12:43,013 --> 00:12:46,351 but smarter, faster, stronger. 285 00:12:46,351 --> 00:12:48,505 And it's trying to show off its ability: 286 00:12:48,505 --> 00:12:50,940 "I'm macho, I'm strong. 287 00:12:51,757 --> 00:12:54,146 I can also do some Jackie Chan-motion, 288 00:12:54,146 --> 00:12:56,000 martial art movements." 289 00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:57,908 (Laughter) 290 00:12:59,314 --> 00:13:01,299 And it walks away. So, this is DARwIn IV. 291 00:13:01,299 --> 00:13:03,332 And again, you'll be able to see it in the lobby. 292 00:13:03,332 --> 00:13:05,668 We truly believe this is going to be the very first 293 00:13:05,668 --> 00:13:08,446 running humanoid robot in the United States, so, stay tuned. 294 00:13:08,446 --> 00:13:12,306 All right. So I showed you some of our exciting robots at work. 295 00:13:12,306 --> 00:13:14,456 So, what is the secret of our success? 296 00:13:14,456 --> 00:13:16,275 Where do we come up with these ideas? 297 00:13:16,275 --> 00:13:18,166 How do we develop these kinds of ideas? 298 00:13:18,166 --> 00:13:20,500 We win awards after awards, year after year. 299 00:13:20,500 --> 00:13:23,556 We're actually running out of wall space to put these plaques, 300 00:13:23,556 --> 00:13:26,970 they're staring to accumulate on the floor hopefully we didn't loose any. 301 00:13:26,970 --> 00:13:29,376 These are just the awards that we won in 2007 fall 302 00:13:29,376 --> 00:13:31,976 from robotics competitions and those kinds of things. 303 00:13:31,976 --> 00:13:33,950 So, really, we have five secrets. 304 00:13:33,950 --> 00:13:36,594 First is: Where do we get inspiration? 305 00:13:36,594 --> 00:13:38,633 Where do we get this spark of imagination? 306 00:13:38,633 --> 00:13:40,555 This is a true story, my personal story. 307 00:13:40,555 --> 00:13:42,652 At night when I go to bed, 3 - 4 a.m. 308 00:13:42,652 --> 00:13:46,165 I lie down, close my eyes, and I see these lines and circles 309 00:13:46,165 --> 00:13:47,975 and different shapes floating around. 310 00:13:47,975 --> 00:13:50,839 And they assemble, and they form these kinds of mechanisms. 311 00:13:50,839 --> 00:13:52,558 And then I think, "Ah this is cool." 312 00:13:52,558 --> 00:13:54,747 So, right next to my bed I keep a notebook, 313 00:13:54,747 --> 00:13:57,888 a journal, with a special pen that has a light on it, LED light, 314 00:13:57,888 --> 00:14:00,821 because I don't want to turn on the light and wake up my wife. 315 00:14:00,821 --> 00:14:04,161 So, I see this, scribble everything down, draw things, and I go to bed. 316 00:14:04,161 --> 00:14:05,710 Every day in the morning, 317 00:14:05,710 --> 00:14:08,106 the first thing I do before my first cup of coffee, 318 00:14:08,106 --> 00:14:10,293 before I brush my teeth, I open my notebook. 319 00:14:10,293 --> 00:14:11,860 Many times it's empty, 320 00:14:11,860 --> 00:14:14,699 sometimes I have something there - sometimes it's junk 321 00:14:14,699 --> 00:14:17,264 but most of the time I can't even read my handwriting. 322 00:14:17,264 --> 00:14:19,718 And so, 4 in the morning, what do you expect, right? 323 00:14:19,718 --> 00:14:21,611 So, I need to decipher what I wrote. 324 00:14:21,611 --> 00:14:24,815 But sometimes I see this ingenious idea in there, 325 00:14:24,815 --> 00:14:26,585 and I have this eureka moment. 326 00:14:26,585 --> 00:14:29,099 I directly run to my home office, sit at my computer, 327 00:14:29,099 --> 00:14:31,017 I type in the ideas, I sketch things out 328 00:14:31,017 --> 00:14:33,017 and I keep a database of ideas. 329 00:14:33,706 --> 00:14:36,182 So, when we have these calls for proposals, 330 00:14:36,182 --> 00:14:40,320 I try to find a match between my potential ideas and the problem. 331 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:42,625 If there is a match we write a research proposal, 332 00:14:42,625 --> 00:14:46,184 get the research funding in, and that's how we start our research programs. 333 00:14:46,184 --> 00:14:48,970 But just a spark of imagination is not good enough. 334 00:14:48,970 --> 00:14:51,037 How do we develop these kinds of ideas? 335 00:14:51,037 --> 00:14:53,820 At our lab RoMeLa, the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, 336 00:14:53,820 --> 00:14:56,454 we have these fantastic brainstorming sessions. 337 00:14:56,454 --> 00:14:59,002 So, we gather around, we discuss about problems 338 00:14:59,002 --> 00:15:02,217 and solutions to the problems and talk about it. 339 00:15:02,217 --> 00:15:05,441 But before we start we set this golden rule. 340 00:15:05,441 --> 00:15:06,856 The rule is: 341 00:15:06,856 --> 00:15:09,906 Nobody criticizes anybody's ideas. 342 00:15:09,906 --> 00:15:12,182 Nobody criticizes any opinion. 343 00:15:12,182 --> 00:15:14,906 This is important, because many times students, they fear 344 00:15:14,906 --> 00:15:17,656 or they feel uncomfortable how others might think 345 00:15:17,656 --> 00:15:19,765 about their opinions and thoughts. 346 00:15:19,765 --> 00:15:21,696 So, once you do this, it is amazing 347 00:15:21,696 --> 00:15:23,173 how the students open up. 348 00:15:23,173 --> 00:15:26,303 They have these wacky, cool, crazy, brilliant ideas, 349 00:15:26,303 --> 00:15:29,778 and the whole room is just electrified with creative energy. 350 00:15:29,778 --> 00:15:32,326 And this is how we develop our ideas. 351 00:15:32,871 --> 00:15:34,419 Well, we're running out of time. 352 00:15:34,419 --> 00:15:36,275 One more thing I want to talk about is, 353 00:15:36,275 --> 00:15:39,419 you know, just a spark of idea and development is not good enough. 354 00:15:39,419 --> 00:15:41,058 There was a great TED moment, 355 00:15:41,058 --> 00:15:43,987 I think it was Sir Ken Robinson, was it? 356 00:15:43,987 --> 00:15:45,974 He gave a talk about how education 357 00:15:45,974 --> 00:15:48,303 and school kills creativity. 358 00:15:48,303 --> 00:15:50,594 Well, actually, there are two sides to the story. 359 00:15:52,020 --> 00:15:54,635 So, there is only so much one can do 360 00:15:54,635 --> 00:15:56,521 with just ingenious ideas 361 00:15:56,521 --> 00:15:59,666 and creativity and good engineering intuition. 362 00:15:59,666 --> 00:16:01,531 If you want to go beyond a tinkering, 363 00:16:01,531 --> 00:16:03,649 if you want to go beyond a hobby of robotics 364 00:16:03,649 --> 00:16:07,000 and really tackle the grand challenges of robotics 365 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:09,569 through rigorous research we need more than that. 366 00:16:09,569 --> 00:16:11,429 This is where school comes in. 367 00:16:11,526 --> 00:16:13,817 Batman, fighting against bad guys, 368 00:16:13,817 --> 00:16:16,340 he has his utility belt, he has his grappling hook, 369 00:16:16,340 --> 00:16:18,347 he has all different kinds of gadgets. 370 00:16:18,347 --> 00:16:20,809 For us roboticists, engineers and scientists, 371 00:16:20,809 --> 00:16:24,672 these tools, these are the courses and classes you take in class. 372 00:16:24,672 --> 00:16:26,834 Math, differential equations. 373 00:16:26,834 --> 00:16:29,744 I have linear algebra, science, physics, 374 00:16:29,744 --> 00:16:32,589 even nowadays, chemistry and biology, as you've seen. 375 00:16:32,589 --> 00:16:34,904 These are all the tools that we need. 376 00:16:34,904 --> 00:16:36,848 So, the more tools you have, for Batman, 377 00:16:36,848 --> 00:16:38,795 more effective at fighting the bad guys, 378 00:16:38,795 --> 00:16:41,478 for us, more tools to attack these kinds of big problems. 379 00:16:42,510 --> 00:16:44,629 So, education is very important. 380 00:16:45,373 --> 00:16:48,121 Also, it's not about that, only about that. 381 00:16:48,121 --> 00:16:50,255 You also have to work really, really hard. 382 00:16:50,255 --> 00:16:51,745 So, I always tell my students, 383 00:16:51,745 --> 00:16:53,830 "Work smart, then work hard." 384 00:16:53,830 --> 00:16:56,483 This picture in the back this is 3 in the morning. 385 00:16:56,483 --> 00:16:59,090 I guarantee if you come to your lab at 3 - 4 am 386 00:16:59,090 --> 00:17:00,687 we have students working there, 387 00:17:00,687 --> 00:17:03,860 not because I tell them to, but because we are having too much fun. 388 00:17:03,860 --> 00:17:05,460 Which leads to the last topic: 389 00:17:05,460 --> 00:17:07,366 Do not forget to have fun. 390 00:17:07,366 --> 00:17:10,606 That's really the secret of our success, we're having too much fun. 391 00:17:10,606 --> 00:17:14,135 I truly believe that highest productivity comes when you're having fun, 392 00:17:14,135 --> 00:17:15,541 and that's what we're doing. 393 00:17:15,541 --> 00:17:17,122 Again, we're running out of time. 394 00:17:17,122 --> 00:17:20,511 Hopefully I'll have another chance to talk to you about and introduce 395 00:17:20,511 --> 00:17:24,196 some other exciting robotics projects that we didn't have time to talk about. 396 00:17:24,196 --> 00:17:26,272 We have a fully autonomous vehicle 397 00:17:26,272 --> 00:17:28,203 that can drive into urban environments. 398 00:17:28,203 --> 00:17:31,078 We won a half a million dollars in the DARPA Urban Challenge. 399 00:17:31,078 --> 00:17:32,769 We also have the world's very first 400 00:17:32,769 --> 00:17:34,675 vehicle that can be driven by the blind. 401 00:17:34,675 --> 00:17:37,242 We call it the Blind Driver Challenge, very exciting. 402 00:17:37,242 --> 00:17:40,867 And many, many other robotics projects I want to talk about. 403 00:17:40,867 --> 00:17:43,532 There you go. Go out there, read a great book. 404 00:17:43,532 --> 00:17:46,658 Get inspired, invent, work really hard. 405 00:17:46,885 --> 00:17:48,544 Stay in school. 406 00:17:48,544 --> 00:17:51,772 Come up with cool ideas, I'll be happy to learn more about [them]. 407 00:17:51,772 --> 00:17:54,106 Shoot me an email, let's talk about it. 408 00:17:54,106 --> 00:17:56,073 There you go. Thank you so much. 409 00:17:56,073 --> 00:17:58,443 (Applause)