WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 So, the first robot to talk about is called STriDER. 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.000 It stands for Self-excited 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Tripedal Dynamic Experimental Robot. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:09.000 It's a robot that has three legs, 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:12.000 which is inspired by nature. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:14.000 But have you seen anything in nature, 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:16.000 an animal that has three legs? 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:18.000 Probably not. So, why do I call this 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:20.000 a biologically inspired robot? How would it work? 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:23.000 But before that, let's look at pop culture. 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:26.000 So, you know H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds," novel and movie. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:28.000 And what you see over here is a very popular 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:30.000 video game, 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:33.000 and in this fiction they describe these alien creatures that 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:35.000 are robots that have three legs that terrorize Earth. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:39.000 But my robot, STriDER, does not move like this. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:42.000 So, this is an actual dynamic simulation animation. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:44.000 I'm just going to show you how the robot works. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:47.000 It flips its body 180 degrees 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:50.000 and it swings its leg between the two legs and catches the fall. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:52.000 So, that's how it walks. But when you look at us 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:54.000 human being, bipedal walking, 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:56.000 what you're doing is you're not really using a muscle 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:59.000 to lift your leg and walk like a robot. Right? 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:02.000 What you're doing is you really swing your leg and catch the fall, 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:05.000 stand up again, swing your leg and catch the fall. 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:08.000 You're using your built-in dynamics, the physics of your body, 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:10.000 just like a pendulum. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.000 We call that the concept of passive dynamic locomotion. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:16.000 What you're doing is, when you stand up, 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:18.000 potential energy to kinetic energy, 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:20.000 potential energy to kinetic energy. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:22.000 It's a constantly falling process. 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:25.000 So, even though there is nothing in nature that looks like this, 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:27.000 really, we were inspired by biology 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:29.000 and applying the principles of walking 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:32.000 to this robot. Thus it's a biologically inspired robot. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:34.000 What you see over here, this is what we want to do next. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:38.000 We want to fold up the legs and shoot it up for long-range motion. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:41.000 And it deploys legs -- it looks almost like "Star Wars" -- 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:44.000 when it lands, it absorbs the shock and starts walking. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:47.000 What you see over here, this yellow thing, this is not a death ray. (Laughter) 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:49.000 This is just to show you that if you have cameras 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:51.000 or different types of sensors -- 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.000 because it is tall, it's 1.8 meters tall -- 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:56.000 you can see over obstacles like bushes and those kinds of things. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:58.000 So we have two prototypes. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:01.000 The first version, in the back, that's STriDER I. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:03.000 The one in front, the smaller, is STriDER II. 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:05.000 The problem that we had with STriDER I is 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:08.000 it was just too heavy in the body. We had so many motors, 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:10.000 you know, aligning the joints, and those kinds of things. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.000 So, we decided to synthesize a mechanical mechanism 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:17.000 so we could get rid of all the motors, and with a single motor 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:19.000 we can coordinate all the motions. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:22.000 It's a mechanical solution to a problem, instead of using mechatronics. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:25.000 So, with this now the top body is light enough. So, it's walking in our lab; 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:28.000 this was the very first successful step. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:30.000 It's still not perfected -- its coffee falls down -- 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:33.000 so we still have a lot of work to do. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:36.000 The second robot I want to talk about is called IMPASS. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:40.000 It stands for Intelligent Mobility Platform with Actuated Spoke System. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:43.000 So, it's a wheel-leg hybrid robot. 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:45.000 So, think of a rimless wheel 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:47.000 or a spoke wheel, 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:50.000 but the spokes individually move in and out of the hub; 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:52.000 so, it's a wheel-leg hybrid. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:54.000 We are literally re-inventing the wheel here. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:57.000 Let me demonstrate how it works. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:59.000 So, in this video we're using an approach 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:01.000 called the reactive approach. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:04.000 Just simply using the tactile sensors on the feet, 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:06.000 it's trying to walk over a changing terrain, 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:09.000 a soft terrain where it pushes down and changes. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:11.000 And just by the tactile information, 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:14.000 it successfully crosses over these type of terrain. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:18.000 But, when it encounters a very extreme terrain, 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:21.000 in this case, this obstacle is more than three times 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:23.000 the height of the robot, 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.000 Then it switches to a deliberate mode, 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:27.000 where it uses a laser range finder, 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:29.000 and camera systems, to identify the obstacle and the size, 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:32.000 and it plans, carefully plans the motion of the spokes 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:34.000 and coordinates it so that it can show this 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:36.000 kind of very very impressive mobility. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:38.000 You probably haven't seen anything like this out there. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:41.000 This is a very high mobility robot 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:44.000 that we developed called IMPASS. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:46.000 Ah, isn't that cool? NOTE Paragraph 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:49.000 When you drive your car, 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:51.000 when you steer your car, you use a method 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:53.000 called Ackermann steering. 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:55.000 The front wheels rotate like this. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:58.000 For most small wheeled robots, 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:00.000 they use a method called differential steering 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:03.000 where the left and right wheel turns the opposite direction. 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:06.000 For IMPASS, we can do many, many different types of motion. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:09.000 For example, in this case, even though the left and right wheel is connected 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:11.000 with a single axle rotating at the same angle of velocity. 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:14.000 We just simply change the length of the spoke. 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:16.000 It affects the diameter and then can turn to the left, turn to the right. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:18.000 So, these are just some examples of the neat things 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:21.000 that we can do with IMPASS. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:23.000 This robot is called CLIMBeR: 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:26.000 Cable-suspended Limbed Intelligent Matching Behavior Robot. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:29.000 So, I've been talking to a lot of NASA JPL scientists -- 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:31.000 at JPL they are famous for the Mars rovers -- 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:33.000 and the scientists, geologists always tell me 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:36.000 that the real interesting science, 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:39.000 the science-rich sites, are always at the cliffs. 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:41.000 But the current rovers cannot get there. 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:43.000 So, inspired by that we wanted to build a robot 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:46.000 that can climb a structured cliff environment. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:48.000 So, this is CLIMBeR. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:50.000 So, what it does, it has three legs. It's probably difficult to see, 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:53.000 but it has a winch and a cable at the top -- 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:55.000 and it tries to figure out the best place to put its foot. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:57.000 And then once it figures that out 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:00.000 in real time, it calculates the force distribution: 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:03.000 how much force it needs to exert to the surface 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:05.000 so it doesn't tip and doesn't slip. 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:07.000 Once it stabilizes that, it lifts a foot, 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:11.000 and then with the winch it can climb up these kinds of thing. 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:13.000 Also for search and rescue applications as well. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:15.000 Five years ago I actually worked at NASA JPL 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:17.000 during the summer as a faculty fellow. 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:21.000 And they already had a six legged robot called LEMUR. 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:24.000 So, this is actually based on that. This robot is called MARS: 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.000 Multi-Appendage Robotic System. So, it's a hexapod robot. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:29.000 We developed our adaptive gait planner. 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:31.000 We actually have a very interesting payload on there. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:33.000 The students like to have fun. And here you can see that it's 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:36.000 walking over unstructured terrain. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:38.000 It's trying to walk on the coarse terrain, 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:40.000 sandy area, 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:45.000 but depending on the moisture content or the grain size of the sand 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:47.000 the foot's soil sinkage model changes. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:51.000 So, it tries to adapt its gait to successfully cross over these kind of things. 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:53.000 And also, it does some fun stuff, as can imagine. 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:56.000 We get so many visitors visiting our lab. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.000 So, when the visitors come, MARS walks up to the computer, 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:00.000 starts typing "Hello, my name is MARS." 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:02.000 Welcome to RoMeLa, 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:06.000 the Robotics Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.000 This robot is an amoeba robot. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:11.000 Now, we don't have enough time to go into technical details, 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:13.000 I'll just show you some of the experiments. 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:15.000 So, this is some of the early feasibility experiments. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.000 We store potential energy to the elastic skin to make it move. 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:21.000 Or use an active tension cords to make it move 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:24.000 forward and backward. It's called ChIMERA. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:26.000 We also have been working with some scientists 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:28.000 and engineers from UPenn 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:30.000 to come up with a chemically actuated version 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:32.000 of this amoeba robot. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:34.000 We do something to something 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:40.000 And just like magic, it moves. The blob. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:42.000 This robot is a very recent project. It's called RAPHaEL. 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:45.000 Robotic Air Powered Hand with Elastic Ligaments. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:49.000 There are a lot of really neat, very good robotic hands out there in the market. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:53.000 The problem is they're just too expensive, tens of thousands of dollars. 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:55.000 So, for prosthesis applications it's probably not too practical, 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:57.000 because it's not affordable. 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:01.000 We wanted to go tackle this problem in a very different direction. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:04.000 Instead of using electrical motors, electromechanical actuators, 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:06.000 we're using compressed air. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:08.000 We developed these novel actuators for joints. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:11.000 It is compliant. You can actually change the force, 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:13.000 simply just changing the air pressure. 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:15.000 And it can actually crush an empty soda can. 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:18.000 It can pick up very delicate objects like a raw egg, 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:21.000 or in this case, a lightbulb. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:25.000 The best part, it took only $200 dollars to make the first prototype. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:28.000 This robot is actually a family of snake robots 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:30.000 that we call HyDRAS, 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:32.000 Hyper Degrees-of-freedom Robotic Articulated Serpentine. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:35.000 This is a robot that can climb structures. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:37.000 This is a HyDRAS's arm. 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:39.000 It's a 12 degrees of freedom robotic arm. 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:41.000 But the cool part is the user interface. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:44.000 The cable over there, that's an optical fiber. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:46.000 And this student, probably the first time using it, 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:48.000 but she can articulate it many different ways. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:51.000 So, for example in Iraq, you know, the war zone, 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:53.000 there is roadside bombs. Currently you send these 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:56.000 remotely controlled vehicles that are armed. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:58.000 It takes really a lot of time and it's expensive 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:02.000 to train the operator to operate this complex arm. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:04.000 In this case it's very intuitive; 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:08.000 this student, probably his first time using it, doing very complex manipulation tasks, 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:10.000 picking up objects and doing manipulation, 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:13.000 just like that. Very intuitive. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:17.000 Now, this robot is currently our star robot. 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:20.000 We actually have a fan club for the robot, DARwIn: 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:23.000 Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence. 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:25.000 As you know, we are very interested in 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:27.000 humanoid robot, human walking, 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:29.000 so we decided to build a small humanoid robot. 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:31.000 This was in 2004; at that time, 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:33.000 this was something really, really revolutionary. 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:35.000 This was more of a feasibility study: 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:37.000 What kind of motors should we use? 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:39.000 Is it even possible? What kinds of controls should we do? 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:41.000 So, this does not have any sensors. 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:43.000 So, it's an open loop control. 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:45.000 For those who probably know, if you don't have any sensors 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:47.000 and there are any disturbances, you know what happens. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:51.000 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:53.000 So, based on that success, the following year 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:56.000 we did the proper mechanical design 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:58.000 starting from kinematics. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:00.000 And thus, DARwIn I was born in 2005. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:02.000 It stands up, it walks -- very impressive. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:04.000 However, still, as you can see, 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:08.000 it has a cord, umbilical cord. So, we're still using an external power source 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:10.000 and external computation. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:14.000 So, in 2006, now it's really time to have fun. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:17.000 Let's give it intelligence. We give it all the computing power it needs: 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:19.000 a 1.5 gigahertz Pentium M chip, 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:21.000 two FireWire cameras, rate gyros, accelerometers, 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:24.000 four force sensors on the foot, lithium polymer batteries. 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:28.000 And now DARwIn II is completely autonomous. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:30.000 It is not remote controlled. 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:33.000 There are no tethers. It looks around, searches for the ball, 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:36.000 looks around, searches for the ball, and it tries to play a game of soccer, 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:39.000 autonomously: artificial intelligence. 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:42.000 Let's see how it does. This was our very first trial, 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:47.000 and... Spectators (Video): Goal! NOTE Paragraph 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:51.000 Dennis Hong: So, there is actually a competition called RoboCup. 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:53.000 I don't know how many of you have heard about RoboCup. 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:58.000 It's an international autonomous robot soccer competition. 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:01.000 And the goal of RoboCup, the actual goal is, 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:03.000 by the year 2050 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:06.000 we want to have full size, autonomous humanoid robots 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:10.000 play soccer against the human World Cup champions 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:12.000 and win. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:14.000 It's a true actual goal. It's a very ambitious goal, 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:16.000 but we truly believe that we can do it. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:19.000 So, this is last year in China. 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:21.000 We were the very first team in the United States that qualified 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:23.000 in the humanoid RoboCup competition. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:26.000 This is this year in Austria. 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:28.000 You're going to see the action, three against three, 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:30.000 completely autonomous. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:32.000 There you go. Yes! 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:35.000 The robots track and they 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:38.000 team play amongst themselves. 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:40.000 It's very impressive. It's really a research event 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:44.000 packaged in a more exciting competition event. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:46.000 What you see over here, this is the beautiful 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:48.000 Louis Vuitton Cup trophy. 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:50.000 So, this is for the best humanoid, 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:52.000 and we would like to bring this for the very first time, to the United States 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:54.000 next year, so wish us luck. 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:56.000 (Applause) 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:59.000 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:01.000 DARwIn also has a lot of other talents. 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:04.000 Last year it actually conducted the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:07.000 for the holiday concert. 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:10.000 This is the next generation robot, DARwIn IV, 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:13.000 but smarter, faster, stronger. 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:15.000 And it's trying to show off its ability: 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:18.000 "I'm macho, I'm strong. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:21.000 I can also do some Jackie Chan-motion, 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:24.000 martial art movements." 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:26.000 (Laughter) 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:28.000 And it walks away. So, this is DARwIn IV. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:30.000 And again, you'll be able to see it in the lobby. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:32.000 We truly believe this is going to be the very first running 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:35.000 humanoid robot in the United States. So, stay tuned. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:38.000 All right. So I showed you some of our exciting robots at work. 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:41.000 So, what is the secret of our success? 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:43.000 Where do we come up with these ideas? 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:45.000 How do we develop these kinds of ideas? 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:47.000 We have a fully autonomous vehicle 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:49.000 that can drive into urban environments. We won a half a million dollars 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:51.000 in the DARPA Urban Challenge. 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:53.000 We also have the world's very first 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:55.000 vehicle that can be driven by the blind. 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:57.000 We call it the Blind Driver Challenge, very exciting. 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:01.000 And many, many other robotics projects I want to talk about. 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:03.000 These are just the awards that we won in 2007 fall 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:06.000 from robotics competitions and those kinds of things. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:08.000 So, really, we have five secrets. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:10.000 First is: Where do we get inspiration? 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:12.000 Where do we get this spark of imagination? 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:15.000 This is a true story, my personal story. 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:17.000 At night when I go to bed, 3 - 4 a.m. in the morning, 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:20.000 I lie down, close my eyes, and I see these lines and circles 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:22.000 and different shapes floating around. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:25.000 And they assemble, and they form these kinds of mechanisms. 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:27.000 And then I think, "Ah this is cool." 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:29.000 So, right next to my bed I keep a notebook, 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:32.000 a journal, with a special pen that has a light on it, LED light, 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:34.000 because I don't want to turn on the light and wake up my wife. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:36.000 So, I see this, scribble everything down, draw things, 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:38.000 and I go to bed. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:40.000 Every day in the morning, 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:42.000 the first thing I do before my first cup of coffee, 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:44.000 before I brush my teeth, I open my notebook. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:46.000 Many times it's empty, 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:48.000 sometimes I have something there -- if something's there, sometimes it's junk -- 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:51.000 but most of the time I can't even read my handwriting. 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:54.000 And so, 4 am in the morning, what do you expect, right? 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:56.000 So, I need to decipher what I wrote. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:59.000 But sometimes I see this ingenious idea in there, 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:01.000 and I have this eureka moment. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:03.000 I directly run to my home office, sit at my computer, 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:05.000 I type in the ideas, I sketch things out 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:08.000 and I keep a database of ideas. 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:10.000 So, when we have these calls for proposals, 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:12.000 I try to find a match between my 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:14.000 potential ideas 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:16.000 and the problem. If there is a match we write a research proposal, 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:20.000 get the research funding in, and that's how we start our research programs. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:23.000 But just a spark of imagination is not good enough. 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:25.000 How do we develop these kinds of ideas? 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:28.000 At our lab RoMeLa, the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:31.000 we have these fantastic brainstorming sessions. 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:33.000 So, we gather around, we discuss about problems 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:35.000 and social problems and talk about it. 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:38.000 But before we start we set this golden rule. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:40.000 The rule is: 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:43.000 Nobody criticizes anybody's ideas. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:45.000 Nobody criticizes any opinion. 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:47.000 This is important, because many times students, they fear 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:50.000 or they feel uncomfortable how others might think 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:52.000 about their opinions and thoughts. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:54.000 So, once you do this, it is amazing 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:56.000 how the students open up. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:59.000 They have these wacky, cool, crazy, brilliant ideas, and 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:02.000 the whole room is just electrified with creative energy. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:05.000 And this is how we develop our ideas. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:08.000 Well, we're running out of time. One more thing I want to talk about is, 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:12.000 you know, just a spark of idea and development is not good enough. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:14.000 There was a great TED moment, 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:17.000 I think it was Sir Ken Robinson, was it? 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:19.000 He gave a talk about how education 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:21.000 and school kills creativity. 00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:24.000 Well, actually, there are two sides to the story. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:27.000 So, there is only so much one can do 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:29.000 with just ingenious ideas 00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:32.000 and creativity and good engineering intuition. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:34.000 If you want to go beyond a tinkering, 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:36.000 if you want to go beyond a hobby of robotics 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:39.000 and really tackle the grand challenges of robotics 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:41.000 through rigorous research 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:44.000 we need more than that. This is where school comes in. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:47.000 Batman, fighting against bad guys, 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:49.000 he has his utility belt, he has his grappling hook, 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:51.000 he has all different kinds of gadgets. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.000 For us roboticists, engineers and scientists, 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:58.000 these tools, these are the courses and classes you take in class. 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:00.000 Math, differential equations. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:02.000 I have linear algebra, science, physics, 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:05.000 even nowadays, chemistry and biology, as you've seen. 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:07.000 These are all the tools that we need. 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:09.000 So, the more tools you have, for Batman, 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:11.000 more effective at fighting the bad guys, 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:15.000 for us, more tools to attack these kinds of big problems. 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:18.000 So, education is very important. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:20.000 Also, it's not about that, 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:22.000 only about that. You also have to work really, really hard. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:24.000 So, I always tell my students, 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:26.000 "Work smart, then work hard." 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:29.000 This picture in the back this is 3 a.m. in the morning. 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:31.000 I guarantee if you come to your lab at 3 - 4 am 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:33.000 we have students working there, 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:36.000 not because I tell them to, but because we are having too much fun. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:38.000 Which leads to the last topic: 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:40.000 Do not forget to have fun. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:43.000 That's really the secret of our success, we're having too much fun. 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:46.000 I truly believe that highest productivity comes when you're having fun, 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:48.000 and that's what we're doing. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:50.000 There you go. Thank you so much. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:55.000 (Applause)