Kinect Used to Make a Robot Do Pushups

An roboticist uses Kinect to link his automaton’s actions with actual movements.

We’ve seen some pretty amazing hacks and projects come out ever since the Kinect was released back in November and the drivers were made publicly available. But beyond titty simulators and editing 3d images in real time, the applications in robotics have been the most entertaining. Taylor Veltrop, a “software engineer for hire” living in Tokyo, has posted a video along with extensive documentation of Microsoft’s Kinect sensor controlling his Kondo KHR-1HV. The result is robot pushups:

All of the software and hardware that Veltrop used is freely available on the web but he is the first one to put it all together to make his robot do exactly what he is doing. He goes on about his future plans, including tracking the positions of his hand positions to control the robot’s grippers, but the fidelity of the robot’s movements to Veltrop’s actions is pretty awesome.

I’m not sure what the practical applications are for such a setup. Perhaps it could be used in a Hug-Over IP (HOIP) service where you can connect with your loved ones over a long distance with a robot hug stand-in. Never mind, once Kinect is used to match movements with one of these Japanese androids it could get a little creepy.

Meanwhile, Veltrop entered his project into Willow Garage’s ROS 3D Contest. Let’s hope he gets some of the $8 thousand in prize money being offered.

Source: Robots Dreams