A development of humanoid robot HRP-2 is presented in this paper. HRP-2 is a humanoid robotics platform, which we developed in phase two of HRP. HRP was a humanoid robotics project, which had run by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan from 1998FY to 2002FY for five years. The ability of the biped locomotion of HRP-2 is improved so that HRP-2 can cope with uneven surface, can walk at two third level of human speed, and can walk on a narrow path. The ability of whole body motion of HRP-2 is also improved so that HRP-2 can get up by a humanoid robot's own self if HRP-2 tips over safely. In this paper, the appearance design, the mechanisms, the electrical systems, specifications, and features upgraded from its prototype are also introduced.

Humanoid robot HRP-2

In this paper, the development of humanoid robot HRP-3 is presented. HRP-3, which stands for Humanoid Robotics Platform-3, is a human-size humanoid robot developed as the succeeding model of HRP-2. One of features of HRP-3 is that its main mechanical and structural components are designed to prevent the penetration of dust or spray. Another is that its wrist and hand are newly designed to improve manipulation. Software for a humanoid robot in a real environment is also improved. We also include information on mechanical features of HRP-3 and together with the newly developed hand. Also included are the technologies implemented in HRP-3 prototype. Electrical features and some experimental results using HRP-3 are also presented.

Humanoid robot HRP-3

Society is becoming more automated with robots beginning to perform most tasks in factories and starting to help out in home and office environments. One of the most important functions of robots is the ability to manipulate objects in their environment. Because the space of possible robot designs, sensor modalities, and target tasks is huge, researchers end up having to manually create many models, databases, and programs for their specific task, an effort that is repeated whenever the task changes. Given a specification for a robot and a task, the presented framework automatically constructs the necessary databases and programs required for the robot to reliably execute manipulation tasks. It includes contributions in three major components that are critical for manipulation tasks. 
The first is a geometric-based planning system that analyzes all necessary modalities of manipulation planning and offers efficient algorithms to formulate and solve them. This allows identification of the necessary information needed from the task and robot specifications. Using this set of analyses, we build a planning knowledge-base that allows informative geometric reasoning about the structure of the scene and the robot's goals. We show how to efficiently generate and query the information for planners. 
The second is a set of efficient algorithms considering the visibility of objects in cameras when choosing manipulation goals. We show results with several robot platforms using grippers cameras to boost accuracy of the detected objects and to reliably complete the tasks. Furthermore, we use the presented planning and visibility infrastructure to develop a completely automated extrinsic camera calibration method and a method for detecting insufficient calibration data. 
The third is a vision-centric database that can analyze a rigid object's surface for stable and discriminable features to be used in pose extraction programs. Furthermore, we show work towards a new voting-based object pose extraction algorithm that does not rely on 2D/3D feature correspondences and thus reduces the early-commitment problem plaguing the generality of traditional vision-based pose extraction algorithms. 
In order to reinforce our theoric contributions with a solid implementation basis, we discuss the open-source planning environment OpenRAVE, which began and evolved as a result of the work done in this thesis. We present an analysis of its architecture and provide insight for successful robotics software environments.

Automated construction of robotic manipulation programs

This article presents the mechatronic design of the autonomous humanoid robot called NAO that is built by the French company Aldebaran-Robotics. With its height of 0.57 m and its weight about 4.5 kg, this innovative robot is lightweight and compact. It distinguishes itself from existing humanoids thanks to its pelvis kinematics design, its proprietary actuation system based on brush DC motors, its electronic, computer and distributed software architectures. This robot has been designed to be affordable without sacrificing quality and performance. It is an open and easy-to-handle platform. The comprehensive and functional design is one of the reasons that helped select NAO to replace the AIBO quadrupeds in the 2008 RoboCup standard league.

Mechatronic design of NAO humanoid

http://sensorimotorcontrolatorium.uic.edu/uploads/3/8/9/6/38963381/aubernikerherr.pdf

2008 Special Issue: Powered ankle-foot prosthesis to assist level-ground and stair-descent gaits

This paper presents the development of humanoid robotics platform - 4 (or HRP-4 for short). The high-density implementation used for HRP-4C, the cybernetic human developed by AIST, is also applied to HRP-4. HRP-4 has a total of 34 degrees of freedom, including 7 degrees of freedom for each arm to facilitate object handling and has a slim, lightweight body with a height of 151 [cm] and weight 39 [kg]. The software platform OpenRTM-aist and a Linux kernel with the RT-Preempt patch are used in the HRP-4 software system. Design concepts and mechanisms are presented with its basic specification in this paper.

/pdf/humanoid-robot-hrp-4-humanoid-robotics-platform-with-1kj1kflf5s.pdf

Humanoid robot HRP-4 - Humanoid robotics platform with lightweight and slim body

A development of humanoid robot HRP-3P, which is a humanoid robot HRP-3 prototype, is presented in this paper HRP-3 is under development as the succession humanoid to HRP-2, which we developed in phase two of HRP (humanoid robotics project) One of futures of HRP-3P is that its main mechanical and structural components are designed for protection against dust and water Another is that node controllers are developed for realization of distributed control system Real-time communication on Ethernet is also newly developed for communication between main controller and node controllers In this paper, mechanical features and electrical features are presented with specifications of HRP-3P

Development of humanoid robot HRP-3P

In this paper we realize a real-time communication on Ethernet and develop an onbody distributed control system for a humanoid robot, HRP-3P. Real-time communication on Ethernet is realized by (1) a communication method using the data link layer directly and (2) timing control using a real-time operating system ARTLinux. This enables us to reduce the cost of embedded systems and improve developmental efficiency. A CORBA implementation which works on this communication layer is also developed to increase compatibility with existing software. Finally a small-size distributed robot controller is developed for the onbody network of HRP-3P and a distributed I/O system is developed on top of this.

/pdf/distributed-control-system-of-humanoid-robots-based-on-real-2mmz8ossv0.pdf

Distributed Control System of Humanoid Robots based on Real-time Ethernet

In this paper, the development of humanoid robot HRP-3 is presented. HRP-3 is a human-size humanoid robot developed as the succeeding model of HRP-2 and stands for Humanoid Robotics Platform-3. One of features of HRP-3 is that its main mechanical and structural components are designed to prevent the penetration of dust or spray. Another is that its wrist and hand are newly designed to improve manipulation. Software for a humanoid robot in a real environment is also improved. We also include information on mechanisms preventing the penetration of dust or splash together with the cooling system, the newly developed hand, and specifications of HRP-3. Some demonstration results using HRP-3 are also presented.

G. Miyamori

Papers

Humanoid robot HRP-3

Humanoid robot HRP-4 - Humanoid robotics platform with lightweight and slim body

Development of humanoid robot HRP-3P

Distributed Control System of Humanoid Robots based on Real-time Ethernet

Development of Humanoid Robot “HRP-3”