with their own speech. Many can walk
upright just like us and have dozens of
motors/servos to create many motions.
Some even move about on two side-by-side balancing wheels or a roller skate-like foot like Rosie (Figure 3) on the old
Jetsons cartoon series. It seems as if we
do have the ultimate robot available
today... or do we? Well, it’s not quite
like the myth that is often told that the
director of the US Patent Office over a
century ago handed in his resignation
stating that “everything that can be
invented has been invented.”
We have made some amazing
strides in technology, but we have many
huge leaps and bounds ahead of us.
Today’s batteries have incredible power
density but they remain one of the
major pitfalls of creating a true home
robot that has the physical power of a
similar-sized human. Honda’s Asimo
must walk around with a huge
backpack battery in order to operate
for less than an hour (Figure 4) The
energy crunch of today may actually
produce as a side product a very high
density battery that will have the
capacity to power future robots.
The latest rare-earth field DC motors
are powerful with several horsepower
available in fist-sized packages, but
tomorrow’s electro-chemical muscles
on the drawing boards may be the
answer for future humanoids. Wheels
not withstanding, most of the functions
and motions on a complex humanoid
robot can more easily be accomplished
by linear actuators much like our muscles.
Our shoulder, elbow, head, and similar
motions use our powerful chemical
powered muscles to produce partial
rotation of our joints.
Artificial robot muscles
that have long been a
dream of scientists and
labs around the world
are now becoming a
reality. The available
microcontrollers and
microprocessors are
becoming more versatile
and cheaper, but possibly
something on the order of
Isaac Asimov’s ‘positronic
brain’ may be on the
horizon. Unlike the DRAM
memory that I paid an
extra $40 to upgrade
my Rockwell AIM- 65
computer from 1 KB to
4 KB back in the early
‘80s, memory is dirt cheap these days.
A GB of DRAM is less than $50 and
Flash memory is as cheap as $50 for
8 GB — a million times cheaper!
FIGURE 3. Rosie from
the Jetsons.
FIGURE 4. Honda's Asimo.
Times may be a bit tough these
days, but the sky’s still the limit for
some fantastic home-designed and
built robots. SV
Looking for a GIFT or maybe just something special for yourself?
Check out our website to find all of our other robotic items for sale!
All Electronics Corp. ......................... 45, 66
AP Circuits/ e-pcb.com ............................ 48
AWIT .......................................................... 66
Boca Bearings ..................................... 71, 66
Budget Robotics ...................................... 77
CipherLinx Technologies ......................... 66
CrustCrawler ............................................. 19
Electronics123 .......................................... 45
Hitec .......................................................... 43
Innovation First ........................................... 3
Advertiser Index
Jameco ...................................................... 12
Lorax Works ........................................ 45, 66
Lynxmotion, Inc. ....................................... 82
Maxbotix ................................................... 66
Mini Robotics ........................................... 66
Net Media .................................................83
Parallax, Inc. ...............................Back Cover
PCB Pool ............................................. 66, 77
Pololu Robotics & Electronics .......... 25, 66
RoboBrothers, Inc. ................................... 44
Robo Development ................................. 35
Robotis ...................................................... 61
RobotShop, Inc. ................................. 23, 66
Saleae ........................................................ 45
Solarbotics/HVW ..................................... 18
solderbynumbers.com ...................... 13, 45
Sparkfun Electronics ..................................2
Super Bright LEDs .................................... 66
Technological Arts ................................... 66
Vantec ....................................................... 48
Weird Stuff Warehouse ........................... 45
SERVO 08.2008 81
