Loading [MathJax]/extensions/MathMenu.js
Advertisement
Abstract: Sports, especially badminton, require participants to perform dynamic and skillful motions. Previous robots have had difficulty in performing like a human because of thei... View more
Abstract:
Sports, especially badminton, require participants to perform dynamic and skillful motions. Previous robots have had difficulty in performing like a human because of their severe limitations of low operating speed, heavy bodies, and simplistic mechanisms. In this letter, we propose a new robot design that consists of a structure integrated with pneumatic actuators and noninterfering many-degree-of-freedom joints, for the realization of a high-speed and lightweight humanoid robot. We made a four-degree-of-freedom robot arm for badminton, which is an especially dynamic sport, aiming for maximum speed while meeting geometric requirements. The robot swung with a racket-head speed of 21 m/s, which is a value higher than speeds achieved by previous robotic arms. The robot also realized a skillful shot, namely the spin net shot, which cannot be performed by previous badminton robots having simple mechanisms. A pneumatic robot is considered difficult to control, especially in terms of feedback control. We found that the reproducibility of the robot was as fine as 10-40 mm at the racket head for four kinds of strong swings. Using feedforward control, we also conducted an experiment in which the robot hits a flying shuttle, and achieved a high hitting rate of 69.7% for powerful swings. We believe that this research expands the possibilities of the pneumatic robot and is the first step toward developing a skillful humanoid badminton robot.
Published in: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters ( Volume: 3 , Issue: 3 , July 2018 )
Page(s): 1727 - 1734
Date of Publication: 07 February 2018
ISSN Information:
INSPEC Accession Number: 17599286
Publisher: IEEE
Funding Agency:
No metrics found for this document.
Advertisement

I. Introduction

Robots have been developed for various sports, such as soccer [1], table tennis [2], and badminton [3] –[6]. Such robots can entertain people through their play and are a subject of important research themes, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and machine learning. With technological advances, robots will become useful in events and as practice partners for professional players. However, conventional sports robots are still not comparable to humans, because the emphasis of their development has mostly been on ensuring the game proceeds even though played clumsily. However, human sports in general require high-speed operation and dexterous action, such as that when hitting a ball in a certain direction in a ball sport, making a fast and skillful attack or avoiding an attack in a fighting sport, or executing a feint.

Usage
Jan
-
Feb
29
Mar
67
Apr
44
May
50
Jun
34
Jul
32
Aug
33
Sep
52
Oct
39
Nov
-
Dec
-
380
Total usage
since
Feb 2018
Best Month: Mar
Year Total: 380
* Data is updated on a monthly basis. Usage includes PDF downloads and HTML views.
Advertisement
See the top organizations patenting in technologies mentioned in this article
Advertisement