WEBVTT - How ASIMO Worked 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.800 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.720 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer at 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:20.640 how stuff Works. My love all things tech and in 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:25.079 late June, Honda announced it would stopped production on its 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:29.560 humanoid robot Awesomo, leveraging the work that went into creating 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:33.440 the bot for other applications. Tech Stuff super fan Cat, 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:37.919 who loves this robot, requested I do a show about Osomo, 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:41.839 and I'm happy to do it. Fun fact before we 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:46.480 get into the Osomo story and what made it special 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:50.520 and how it worked, the very first article I ever 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:54.000 wrote for how stuff works dot Com once I was 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:58.360 hired was how Osomo Works Now. I technically rewrote a 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:02.240 couple of articles before, at where they wanted to test 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:05.039 my abilities by giving me an existing article and saying 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.920 could you rewrite this? Could you update it? But the 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:13.199 first full assignment beginning to end was how Osomo works. Um, 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:15.000 if you want to read one of my even earlier ones, 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:18.040 I did a rewrite on electronic voting machines, but Asomo 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:22.160 was my first full article. The article is still up 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:24.600 at how stuff works dot com. But it also was 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:28.520 updated at some point by lee An Aubringer. So I 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.640 didn't I wasn't consulted about that, because that's not the 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:33.680 way it works. Typically when we write articles for how 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:38.880 stuff works. As you know, technology evolves very quickly over time, 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:43.440 and so articles that you write will become outdated rapidly, 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:46.480 and so we would frequently bring in other people to 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:50.840 help update articles while our staff writers like myself would 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:55.200 be on other new, big assignments. So, but this is 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:59.600 all about AWESOMO. So what was awesomo. The name is 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:05.160 actually an acronym. It stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:08.040 and it's a robot that's intended to interact in a 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:12.400 human living environment, meaning that Honda was trying to build 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.720 a robot that could integrate into our lives, that could 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:19.680 move around with human beings in a seamless way, and 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.400 it was meant to be a humanoid robot that could 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:25.880 interact with our environment similar to the way we humans do, 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:30.079 so it needed to have human like appendages. And it 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.360 turns out this is a lot easier said than done, 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:34.800 because a lot of consideration has to go into the 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:39.120 design of such a robot. On casual glance. Awesome, Oh, 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:43.160 looked like a child sized astronaut, complete with like a 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:47.440 space pack and a space helmet. It's humanoid, has arms 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:51.040 as legs as hands with fingers and thumbs, and like 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:53.200 I said, the head looks like a like a space 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:55.760 helmet that you would see an astronaut on the Moon wearing. 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:59.040 And it had it's batterying a big backpack that sat 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:01.720 on its back obvious lee which gave it this kind 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.600 of little estronaut looks very cute, and in fact, that 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:08.079 was done on purpose. They wanted the robot to look 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:12.360 friendly and approachable because it was meant to interact with people. UH. 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:16.400 Over time, the design of Osumo evolved a little bit, 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.080 and I'll cover some of that in this episode, but 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:21.560 I just want to illustrate it here with the earliest 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:26.880 version of the official Osomo, with the version that was 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:31.560 around just before they stopped production on it. In the 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:35.360 first robot that Honda designated as Osomo, because there were 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:41.320 some predecessors, UH, was born quote unquote on November two thousand. 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:45.680 It stood one twenty centimeters tall that's just a little 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.400 bit under four feet, and it weighed about fifty or 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.680 a hundred fifteen pounds. But when it was retired in 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.840 two thousand eighteen and Osumo's robots specs were a little different. 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.119 It stood one hundred thirty centimeters tall that's about four 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.560 ft three inches, so it grew a little bit, and 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:04.680 it weighed forty eight kilograms or about a hundred six pounds, 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:07.520 so it lost a little weight. At top speed, it 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:10.920 could dash at a respectable nine kilometers per hour, which 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:13.760 is about five point six miles per hour. Now, it's 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:15.600 not like it could go toe to toe with the 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:19.040 T one thousand from Terminator two, but it was still 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:22.159 pretty impressive. It was a robot that could run on 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:26.360 two legs, the first to do so. In fact, Honda 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:28.960 chose the robot's height carefully. They wanted to design a 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:31.839 robot that could work in human environments, so it couldn't 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.400 be too small, but it also shouldn't be intimidating. They 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:37.200 didn't want to make, you know, like a kill bot 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:40.479 two thousand that would be terrifying. The robot size was 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.480 determined to be people friendly because it'd be large enough 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:48.719 to operate environmental elements like door knobs or light switches, 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:51.600 and about four ft three inches meant that it would 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:55.359 also be around eye level with a seated human adults. 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:57.719 So if you were seated down at a desk and 0:04:57.760 --> 0:04:59.840 Osimo walked up to you to let you know that 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.960 there was a visitor at the lobby, then you'd be 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:07.560 looking pretty much I too camera with Osomo. It could 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:09.680 also stand behind a desk and it would be at 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:12.640 about the same height as someone who was seated behind 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:16.040 a desk, So that made Osumo a potential receptionist, which 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.080 in fact, Honda made use of Osimo as a receptionist 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:24.600 at their headquarters. The robot also had several degrees of freedom. Now, 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:26.680 the phrase degrees of freedom actually has a couple of 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:30.760 different meanings depending upon what industry or context you're looking at, 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:34.400 uh including statistics. There's a specific meaning for degrees of 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:37.560 freedom and statistics, But in mechanical systems it refers to 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:42.160 the number of independent movements a rigid body is capable of. 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:46.599 So an unrestrained rigid body in space just imagine you've 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:50.120 got a cube of something and it's magically floating in 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:54.640 the air. It has six degrees of freedom because it 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:58.119 can move up or down like it can levitate straight 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:02.279 up or sink straight down. It could strafe left or 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:06.000 right uh, or it could move back and forth toward 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.320 you or away from you. Plus it can rotate around 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:12.919 those axes, which would translate to pitch roll and yaw. 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:17.039 So that's six different degrees of freedom. The final model 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.080 of Osimo had three degrees of freedom for the head, 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:22.880 seven degrees of freedom for each arm, so I had 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:26.919 two arms, thirteen degrees of freedom for each hand, two hands, 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:30.160 two degrees of freedom at the hip, and six degrees 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:33.320 of freedom for each of the legs two legs, which 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:37.239 meant that Osimo ultimately had fifty seven degrees of freedom 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:39.680 for the full robot, the one that was finally retired 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:43.760 in that was an improvement of twenty three degrees of 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:47.040 freedom from its predecessor. Model had twenty three degrees more 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.800 freedom than the previous version of Osomo. I'll go into 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:54.800 further detail about the different sensors and systems Osumo had, 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:56.719 but first I'd like to talk about the history of 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:58.960 the robot itself, and to do that we need to 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.760 travel back to night teen eighties six and what a 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:04.960 year that was, guys. I mean, you could go to 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:06.960 the theater and you could go see what came out 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:11.200 in eight six aliens you could see Ferris Bueller's Day Off, 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.640 or you could see the greatest movie made of all time, 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:18.400 Big Trouble in Little China. Also, Howard the Duck came 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:23.239 out in as I recall music in six include stuff 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:27.280 like Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer or Peter STA's Glory of Love. 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:33.280 Quite an amazing diddy there or cameos Immortal, classic word Up. 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.800 But more importantly for our story engineers at Honda, we're 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.400 tackling a very challenging problem. How do you make a 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:44.600 humanoid robot walk like a person does? So they started 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:48.040 off slowly. First, they began with designing a basic set 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:51.640 of robotic legs that could take steps. So their first 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:54.320 robot model in this phase, which was only meant for 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:56.840 research and development, this was never going to be something 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.760 that they were going to market, was known as the 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:02.640 e O and it was essentially nothing more than a 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:05.960 pair of legs connected to a narrow set of robot hips. 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:08.680 So just legs and hips and that's it. And it 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.440 was wired up and you had a control system that 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.920 would tell it to walk forward. The robot was connected 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.480 directly to those computer systems no wireless systems at this point, 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:24.120 and the legs had to be very careful, very deliberate 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:26.840 in their movements in order to maintain the robot's center 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:30.160 of gravity on the soles of its feet. So every 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:32.560 time it takes a step, it's it's removing weight from 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:35.760 one foot. All of its weight is on its other foot. 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.040 It had to be very careful to move its center 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:40.719 of gravity over the the foot that was still on 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:44.319 the ground. That also meant that the robot had to 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:48.199 continuously make adjustments to its balance as it moved the 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:52.360 free leg forward to take a step. That made taking 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:55.760 a single step a slow process, sometimes taking as long 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:59.960 as twenty seconds for one step. Now, clearly that's way 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:02.720 too slow for a robot to move around in a 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:04.920 human environment, but it was important for the research and 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:09.480 development phase. The robot and all future robots i'll cover 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:13.840 used servo motors for locomotion. Now, those are actuators. They're 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:17.400 either linear or their rotary, which tells you the type 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:21.520 of motion they control, and they allow for precise control 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:26.040 of motion, including velocity and acceleration. A servo motor uses 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:29.040 position feedback, which means the servo motor has to quote 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:32.360 unquote no, it's position so that when it receives an 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:35.599 incoming command to change positions, it can do so accurately. 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.800 So if I translate this into human terms, it's like saying, 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:41.760 you put your right leg in, you take your right 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:44.679 leg out, you put your right leg in, and then 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:48.160 you shake it all about. Humans typically possess a sense 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:51.600 that we call a proprioception. That's describes how our brains 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:54.679 sense our bodies, how our brains know where our limbs are. 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:57.240 This is why if you close your eyes, you can 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:00.000 touch your finger to your nose, assuming you're not under 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.920 of the influence of something. Because we have appropriate exception, 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:05.040 we know the location of each of our limbs, and 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:07.240 therefore we can move those limbs from where they were 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:09.319 to where they need to be. And that's what it's 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:13.360 all about. But machines do not innately possess this ability. 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:16.439 Engineers and computer scientists had to come up with ways 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:19.320 to mimic it, and servo motors are part of systems 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.600 that keep track of positions so that the overall system 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.040 can behave as directed. So if you tell your robot 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:28.680 walk forward three steps, the robot can take that command 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:32.400 and translate it into a series of smaller commands. If 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:35.160 one leg is already placed forward, then the back leg 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:36.520 is the one that's going to have to come up 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.160 and take a step for locomotion to begin. For example, 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:43.520 pretty much every degree of freedom has an associated servo motor. 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:47.319 So as ASUMO or osimo, I should say, increased in complexity, 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:51.480 it got more servo motors. Back to EO, The type 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:55.560 of walking EO could do was called static walking. Before 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:57.800 it could take a second step, the robot had to 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:00.120 be certain it's center of weight had shifted over the 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:03.080 soul of the foot it had just placed down on 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.000 the ground. This was a good start to working out 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.360 the actual mechanics of limb motion, but it was a 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:11.280 far cry from the way organic critters move around. The 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:13.600 team was gonna have to do a lot more research, 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:16.600 and I'll talk about that in just a second, but 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:20.440 first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.840 Engineers got to work analyzing the way humans, animals, and 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:35.920 even insects walk. They studied hours of videos to understand 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:38.760 what is going on from a physical or mechanical side 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:42.000 of things. You know, physiologically, humans don't maintain their center 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:44.240 of gravity directly over the souls of their feet as 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:46.800 they walk. The center of gravity as we walk can 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.280 move around quite a bit, so designing a robot that 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.760 could do this too was gonna be pretty tricky. The 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:53.600 robot would have to take into account a lot of 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:56.560 different factors that we kind of grasp innately once we 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.280 learn how to walk. That would include stuff like the 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.760 robots fed its momentum, the ground it was walking on, 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.440 whether it was level, whether it was flat, that kind 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:09.600 of thing. One thing the team did was study human skeletons. 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:12.520 They noted the location of the joints in the human 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:15.520 legs and determined that the toes play an important part 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:17.760 of walking as they helped guide us in the way 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:20.840 we support our weight from step to step, so their 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:23.400 robots would need to be able to do a similar thing. 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:25.760 The robots were also going to need degrees of freedom 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.840 similar to what you could find in a human ankle, knee, 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:32.439 and hip joint, so the engineers also studied walking humans 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:35.600 to determine stuff like the range of motion every joint 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.120 should be able to replicate, where the center of gravity 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:41.640 should be for every leg, how much torque should be 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:44.920 exerted on leg joints, and also the sensors that would 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.559 be needed to replicate how we humans sense, stuff like 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:51.640 the speed of motion and the impact of our foot 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.200 hitting the ground. All that would be very important so 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:56.000 that the robot would be able to walk in a 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:59.680 stable way and not just hop around or fall off 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:03.400 of its feet or otherwise have some disaster occur in 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:08.440 the engineers designed E one. This was the first of 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:12.000 three robots, the others being E two and E three 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.880 that the engineers designed in an effort to move from 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:19.360 the static walking model to what they called fast walking 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:25.200 Like EO. These robots were essentially legs attached to robotic hips, 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:27.240 and maybe you could argue as also sort of a 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.600 rudimentary torso, but there were no arms, there's no head, 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:34.640 so I was about it. Uh. Each design looked a 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.679 little bit more sophisticated than its predecessor did, but they 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:42.199 were all very almost industrial looking kind of robots. They 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:46.360 would would not take steps as painstakingly slowly as EO did. 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:49.599 They moved a bit more naturally, which for humans involves 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:53.200 shifting our weight forward and leaning into a step. It's 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:55.400 almost like we're about to fall, right like when we 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:57.240 take a step. It's almost as if we're leaning forward 0:13:57.240 --> 0:13:59.440 and we're gonna fall if we don't catch ourselves, and 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:01.960 then we move a foot forward and we do catch 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.920 ourselves with our foot, and then we keep leaning forward 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:06.960 and we catch ourselves again with our foot. So you 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:10.760 can almost think of walking as consistently nearly falling over 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:12.880 in a way if you're looking at it from a 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:14.679 robotics way where you're trying to figure out how to 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.880 design a robot to do a similar thing, So it 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:21.880 involves a lot of almost falling and catching yourself. While 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:25.720 the robots in this phase were considered fast walkers, fast 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:28.880 is a relative term. The E two, for example, the 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:32.880 middle of the three models, was clocked at a top 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:37.400 speed of one point two kilometers per hour on flat surfaces, 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.440 which is about three quarters of a mile per hour. 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:45.040 By comparison, your average humans walking speed is right around 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.480 five kilometers per hour or three point one miles per hour. 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:52.280 So these robots weren't exactly burning up the track walking 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.400 around the work on E one through E three stretch 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:59.560 from seven to and then the team moved into the 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.600 next as new wave dance craze. Anyways, it's still rock 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.440 and roll to me. I don't know what happened there, 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:07.200 it's all on my notes to What I meant to 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:09.560 say is that they began developing the next generation of 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:12.320 walking robots that would be E four, E five, and 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.920 E six, and this wasn't an effort to create stabilized walking, 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:18.640 which meant the engineers wanted to create robots that could 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:22.400 remain stable while walking on a variety of surfaces, including 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:25.160 stuff like slopes or stairs, that they would be able 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:27.920 to adjust their steps and be able to keep their 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:31.360 weight centered so that they didn't fall over. These robots, 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:33.840 like the one through E three also looked like an 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:37.280 armless torso attached to legs, so still didn't look very 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:39.880 much like Awesomo. At this point, the E four through 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:43.320 E six models began to incorporate three areas of control 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:47.440 to achieve stabilized walking, and they are floor reaction control 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.400 that refers to the ability of the robot to absorb 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:53.040 floor unevenness through the soles of its feet in an 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:55.840 effort to maintain a firm stance. So the engineers had 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:58.400 to build sensors into the feet of the robots so 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:00.720 that the robot could gather information and about the floor 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:03.680 and then process that information in a way that was 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.280 meaningful and then adjust its stance to give the robot 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.840 the best chance of not pitching over. Next would be 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:13.040 the target zero moment point control, which is a fancy 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:14.680 way of saying the robot needs to be able to 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:19.280 balance itself, so the zero moment point refers to balancing 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:23.640 different forces in order to maintain posture. Those forces include 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:26.760 stuff like gravity and walking speed that falls into a 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:31.200 category called total inertial force. The other force that occurs 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:33.720 is when the robot's foot connects with the ground. That's 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:36.760 called the ground reaction force. And you want those two 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:41.920 forces to cancel one another out in order to maintain posture. Also, 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.320 the robot has to be able to detect when it 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:47.760 is unable to stand firmly. So first you have to 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:51.240 incorporate sensors that can detect and imbalance in the robot. 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:53.720 Then you have to figure out what to do without 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:57.200 you know, how do you address and imbalance. So with 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:00.680 these robots, the engineers designed a system which will allow 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:03.560 the robots to make adjustments to its upper body and 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.280 they would shift their upper body around to act as 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:08.600 a counter balance. So if it's since it was going 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.240 to fall forward, it might shift its upper body backward 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.800 to counter that action and hopefully remain upright as a result. 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:19.840 The third area of control was called foot planting location control. 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:24.199 This system engaged once the ZMP control had activated, and 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.359 this system would determine the length of the robot step 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:30.040 to catch the robot and make certain it remains upright. 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:32.760 So it's all about maintaining the proper relationship between the 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:36.119 position and speed of the robot body with the length 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.320 of the steps it takes. Now, up to this point, 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:42.200 all the robots have been prototypes to help engineers understand 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:46.440 the fundamentals necessary that would be needed for basic walking. 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.840 The next stage involved building robots that had arms, hands, 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.920 and a head, and that wasn't just for aesthetics, although 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.280 that did play a part in it, but it's also 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:58.720 for locomotion. We use our arms and our body in 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:01.199 our head while we're walking. If the engineers wanted their 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:03.159 robot to move like a human, they were going to 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.040 need to incorporate those elements as well. Plus, if they 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:08.320 wanted it to interact in human environments, they wanted it 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:12.520 to look not terrifying, So giving it arms in the 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.280 head was probably a step in the right direction. From 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:20.159 the team built another series of three robots. These were 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:23.040 designated P one, P two, and P three, and all 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.120 of them were humanoid. They were all taller and heavier 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:29.160 than Osumo would be, and this was when the team 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.120 was still working out the physics and mechanics of humanoid walking, 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:34.680 so they were more concerned with getting those elements right 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:36.760 rather than producing a robot that would be suitable for 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:39.439 human use, so again these were never intended to go 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:43.040 into the workplace. The P one humanoid robot was one 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:48.040 five centimeters tall that's about six ft three inches. It's 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.720 a big robot and also weighed into a hundred which 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:54.960 is about three eighty six pounds, so stats like that. 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:57.440 It could have wrestled for the w w E. Now, 0:18:57.480 --> 0:18:59.639 clearly that type of robot would be too big and 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:02.520 heavy and potentially dangerous for a human environment. If it 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:06.640 lost its balance and fell, it could cause a serious injury. 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:09.480 But it was one of the first of Honda's robots 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:12.240 in this line to have arms and sort of claw 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:15.600 like hands, and engineers worked on coordinating arm and leg 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:18.119 movements and programmed the robots so it could operate simple 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:20.600 things like light switches and door knobs. And pick up 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:23.840 various objects, and coordinating all of that was also another 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:26.960 big challenge, although to be fair, the walking and running 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.159 was probably the biggest of the challenges they faced at 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:32.359 that point. The P two robot was the first self regulating, 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:36.280 two legged humanoid robot walking robot, i should say, and 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.879 it first started strutting its stuff in December n This 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:42.560 robot was the first to have a computer system incorporated 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:46.040 directly into the robots design. Previous robots had been controlled 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:49.760 by computers through a wired connection. This one was completely wireless. 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:52.600 The P two had a battery, It also had a 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:56.560 wireless radio, had motor drives, it had its control computer, 0:19:56.960 --> 0:20:00.679 and more systems on board. Operators would say commands to 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:03.320 the robot through a computer, it would beam the commands over. 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:07.119 The robot would receive these commands wirelessly, and then they 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:09.439 would process the commands and the robot would then do 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:13.159 whatever it was supposed to do, including pushing carts or 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:16.480 climbing stairs. This robot was a little bit shorter than 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:19.000 the P one. It measured a hundred a D two centimeters, 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:21.000 so it was just a hair under six ft tall. 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:26.040 But putting all that on board processing capability onto the 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:29.399 robots uh skeleton meant that they added a lot of 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:33.159 weight to it, so it was a hefty two kilograms 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:36.520 or nearly four hundred sixty three pounds. I stumbled there 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:38.840 for a second because in my notes, just a glance 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:42.720 point the curtain, I wrote two ten kb. That's two bites, 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:48.600 No two kilograms, silly typo. The P three, which was 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:53.320 created in September, was much shorter and lighter than its predecessors. 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.800 It stood one sixty centimeters tall that's about five ft 0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:59.720 three inches, and it weighed in a relatively sevelled hundred 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:03.359 third kilograms or two seven pounds. The team was able 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:05.880 to decentralize the control system for the P three, which 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:08.280 helped remove a lot of that weight that it was 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:11.280 carried around by the P two. Now, those robots helped 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:13.919 the engineers put together the information they needed to create 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.640 the first robot to be called Asomo. This robot would 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:19.919 be smaller, it would be lighter, and it would feature 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:21.679 a design that was meant to make it look friendly 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:24.560 and playful. So next I'll talk about some of the 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:26.840 tech that was used to make Osumo work and how 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:30.040 it became the first humanoid two legged robot. To run. 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:34.120 But first, let's take another quick break and thank our sponsor. 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:45.439 Asomo represented a big breakthrough in creating a robot that 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:48.480 can walk like a human can. For one thing, the 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:52.520 engineers developed what they called intelligent real time flexible walking 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:56.360 or I walk for Osomo. So Osmo can shift its 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:58.879 center of gravity while going through a turn, and that 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:01.159 allows it to make a turn in a gradual curve. 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:04.639 It's like it's it's leaning into the curve, which is 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:07.639 a big deal because earlier robots the only way they 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:09.719 could turn is they would actually have to stop moving 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:12.399 and then they would sort of shuffle in place. They 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:16.200 would stand on one foot, lift their other foot, turn 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:19.439 it slightly, put their other foot down, lift up their 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:22.280