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Shadow Robot Company talk at RobotBrighton
Posted by Chris
on
Friday, April 24, 2009
in
robotbrighton
Graham Wiseman from Shadow Robot came to Hove last night, to give a robot talk about robots. And very interesting it was too.
He demonstrated how someone can have an idea, make a series of decisions - in this case, to build a robotic hand using pneumatic pumps to replicate the action of human muscles - only to have each decision reversed, as practical applications are applied! Shadow Robot actually have two types of robotic hand - a pneumatic version (using patented muscle technology) and an electronic version (using motors).
The original idea was to replicate human muscle action, and the pneumatically-driven hand was built. But when third parties started to take an interest, alternatives had to be invented. For example, after getting interest from NASA about sending Robot Hand up into space, it was quickly realised that it's behaviour in a vacuum was unknown! (How would a pneumatically driven muscle operate in a vacuum?).
Instead of going for a hydraulic solution (potential for leakage and maintenance costs I suppose) Shadow built an electronic hand, with an array of tendons driven by 16 motors. Brilliant! That solves that problem. But it caused the project to deviate from the original idea of replicating human-muscular action, and demonstrates how practical applications can dilute even the most brilliant of ideas.
Then when the clever bods from the nuclear industry started sniffing about, they wanted something that could be used in hazardous environments - not something with exposed electronics and nasty sparky stuff. So it was back to the pneumatic hand to supply them with a solution.
It was a shame we couldn't see the hands powered up and actually working, but then again, not everywhere is kitted out with an industrial air compressor - the Werks certainly isn't!
The two hands were passed around and everyone got to push and pull the digits and make the tendons flex. Apparently the robot hands are just as (if not more so) dexterous as a real human hand. I still couldn't get one to hold a barre chord shape.
The weird rubbery surface was warm but clammy to touch - just as if someone had licked their entire hand before offering it to shake.
It was very good of Graham to let the rabble play about with his robots - especially considering that each one is worth £80,000-£100,000. And he also brought the original prototype with him - a fantastic wooden effort, covered in Polyfilla and operated with bits of string. Sellotape and blu-tack held things in place: it looked just like one of my own contraptions!
It must have been quite a scary train ride for Graham, coming from Islington to Brighton on the train, with about a quarter of a million pounds worth of hardware stuffed into his rucksack! Thanks for coming anyway!
He demonstrated how someone can have an idea, make a series of decisions - in this case, to build a robotic hand using pneumatic pumps to replicate the action of human muscles - only to have each decision reversed, as practical applications are applied! Shadow Robot actually have two types of robotic hand - a pneumatic version (using patented muscle technology) and an electronic version (using motors).
The original idea was to replicate human muscle action, and the pneumatically-driven hand was built. But when third parties started to take an interest, alternatives had to be invented. For example, after getting interest from NASA about sending Robot Hand up into space, it was quickly realised that it's behaviour in a vacuum was unknown! (How would a pneumatically driven muscle operate in a vacuum?).
Instead of going for a hydraulic solution (potential for leakage and maintenance costs I suppose) Shadow built an electronic hand, with an array of tendons driven by 16 motors. Brilliant! That solves that problem. But it caused the project to deviate from the original idea of replicating human-muscular action, and demonstrates how practical applications can dilute even the most brilliant of ideas.
Then when the clever bods from the nuclear industry started sniffing about, they wanted something that could be used in hazardous environments - not something with exposed electronics and nasty sparky stuff. So it was back to the pneumatic hand to supply them with a solution.
It was a shame we couldn't see the hands powered up and actually working, but then again, not everywhere is kitted out with an industrial air compressor - the Werks certainly isn't!
The two hands were passed around and everyone got to push and pull the digits and make the tendons flex. Apparently the robot hands are just as (if not more so) dexterous as a real human hand. I still couldn't get one to hold a barre chord shape.
The weird rubbery surface was warm but clammy to touch - just as if someone had licked their entire hand before offering it to shake.
It was very good of Graham to let the rabble play about with his robots - especially considering that each one is worth £80,000-£100,000. And he also brought the original prototype with him - a fantastic wooden effort, covered in Polyfilla and operated with bits of string. Sellotape and blu-tack held things in place: it looked just like one of my own contraptions!
It must have been quite a scary train ride for Graham, coming from Islington to Brighton on the train, with about a quarter of a million pounds worth of hardware stuffed into his rucksack! Thanks for coming anyway!
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