Servo - August 2016

prominently includes a robotic arm equipped with a gripper that is strangely fashioned into a lizard-like head shape. Think dinosaur steam shovel from the original The Flintstones® cartoon series.

Affectionately known as a “face-arm,” this appendage (Figure 7) is similar to one used by BigDog for flinging cement blocks. So, steer clear of pillow fights with this household helper bot.

In addition to this mechanical appendage, there has been some speculation about the various sensors that might be affixed to the SpotMini. As such, various sharp-eyed reviewers have cited both the VLP- 16 Puck by Velodyne and the MultiSense SL by Carnegie Robotics as possible candidates for the SpotMini’s 3D range sensing.

The VLP- 16 Puck (Figure 8) is a small but powerful light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system. Housed in a protective design, the Puck is able to provide a 360 degree horizontal field of view (FOV) coupled with a 15 degree vertical FOV over a 100 meter distance range. Combined with low power consumption and a cost-effective mass production mindset, the Puck cost $7,999.

On the other hand, the Carnegie Robotics MultiSense SL 3D (see Figure 9) range sensor is a laser 3D stereo video “tri-modal” product that is already the “head” of choice for the Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robots. This tri-modal effect provides three streams of data: 3D stereo range data; laser range data; and video data.

Likewise, there is some significant computing power coupled to these data streams. For example, the stereo output point clouds generate 43,000 points per second with over 11 million feature matches per second.

This type of vision granularity enables the SpotMini to autonomously respond to a wide variety of environmental challenges.

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Too Many Giggles for Google?

Apparently, the director of communications at Google, Courtney Hohne, didn’t see a lot of humor in the Boston Dynamics’ You Tube video of Atlas deftly trudging through an icy forest. From the same series of internal messages cited in the Bloomberg article about Google attempting to sell Boston Dynamics, Hohne said, “There’s excitement from the tech press, but we’re also starting to see some negative threads about it being terrifying, ready to take human’s jobs.” Furthermore, “We’re not going to comment on this video because there’s really not a lot we can add, and we don’t want to answer most of the Qs it triggers.”