UiTM - March Of The Humanoid

While science fiction movie robots such as the Transformers and C3PO from Star Wars have so captured our imagination, a team of scientists have achieved a signicant milestone by developing a humanoid robot which can help in search and rescue missions in hazardous environments, disaster sites and other unstructured environments.

Hanafiah Yussof, Ph.D, from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, together with researchers from the Graduate School of Information Science, Nagoya University have proposed a navigation strategy as a humanoid design system based on contact interaction instead of vision to support humanoid motions. This enables the humanoid robot to function wherever vision sensors are compromised such as in dark or smoke-filled environments.

Using this navigation system, the humanoid robot searches for and detects objects using both arms which are equipped with six-axes force sensors. Based on the search results, it then creates suitable trajectory using its legs to perform biped motions.

To optimize the trajectory generation of the humanoid, the researchers measured link parameters of the robot body and proposed a simplified method of kinematics calculation. They analysed biped trajectory locomotion and subsequently defined suitable trajectory motions, the results of which were then compiled in motion algorithm in the robot control system.

Based on their research they further developed biped trajectory motions of the humanoid robot enabling it to avoid high and low obstacles. The team has also been successful in configuring a crawling motion so that the humanoid robot is able to edge under a low ceiling or a tunnel; a motion that poses vast challenges since the humanoid needs to use both arms and legs to move forward, sidewards and backward.

Apart from confined spaces, this new technology aims to realize a number of further applications where robots can handle complex tasks and adapt to complicated changes in the environment from underground, dark and smoke-filled rooms to extremely dusty conditions. By developing the humanoid robot, the researchers have not only reached a significant milestone in the development of intelligent machines, but are also making a real contribution to understanding human locomotion and sophisticated navigation technology.

Further information; Dr. Hanafiah Yussof is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FKM) UiTM. He is currently pursuing postdoctoral research at Nagoya University Japan under the Overseas Fellowship Program supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). His current work is a collaborative project related to humanoid robotics and intelligent sensors between FKM and the Graduate School of Information Science, Nagoya University. He has been directly involved in the project to develop one of the earliest humanoid robot systems called “Bonten-Maru II” lead by Prof. Yasuo Nasu of Yamagata University Japan. He also leads a group of Japanese scientists, local researchers and students who are developing the first humanoid robot system in Malaysia.

A part of this project was supported by Fiscal 2006 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research in Exploratory Research from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and postdoctoral fellowship research grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

Dr. Hanafiah Yussof can be contacted via hanafiah1034@salam.uitm.edu.my, hanafiah@nuem.nagoya-u.ac.jp, hanafi3013@hotmail.com.

sources : UiTM