Design and development of a light-weight biped humanoid robot Saika-4

In order to meet the demand of a research platform for intelligent robotics, a humanoid robot named Saika-4 is developed. The Saika-4 is a self-sustained biped robot equipped with two arms and a robotics head. The Saika-4 is designed so as to be light weight, low cost and human size. The weight is about 47 kg, and the height is about 1300 mm. The Saika-4 have 30 DOF in total, that is 6 DOF for each leg, 7 DOF for each arm, 1 DOF for each hand and 2 DOF for robotics head. The Saika-4 is equipped with a PC, batteries, a wireless ethernet modem, a gyroscope, and motor drivers in the body. Furthermore, the Saika-4 is equipped with a gravity compensation mechanism using springs in the legs. This paper presents the design of a humanoid robot Saika-4 and the progress of the project. The details of the gravity compensation mechanism is also presented.

[1]  Shigeo Hirose,et al.  Development of a light weight torque limiting M-Drive actuator for hyper-redundant manipulator Float Arm , 1999, Proceedings 1999 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.99CH36288C).

[2]  K. Nishiwaki.  Humanoid 'JSK-H7' : Research Platform for Autonomous Behavior and Whole Body Motion , 2002 .

[3]  Atsushi Konno,et al.  A directional deflection sensor beam for very small force/torque measurement , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).

[4]  Masayuki Inaba,et al.  Real-time color stereo vision system for a mobile robot based on field multiplexing , 1997, Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[5]  Atsuo Takanishi,et al.  Design of biped walking robots having antagonistic driven joints using nonlinear spring mechanism , 1997, Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robot and Systems. Innovative Robotics for Real-World Applications. IROS '97.

[6]  Atsushi Konno,et al.  Development of a light-weight biped humanoid robot , 2000, Proceedings. 2000 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2000) (Cat. No.00CH37113).

[7]  Masahiro Fujita,et al.  Motion entertainment by a small humanoid robot based on OPEN-R , 2001, Proceedings 2001 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Expanding the Societal Role of Robotics in the the Next Millennium (Cat. No.01CH37180).

[8]  T. Takenaka,et al.  The development of Honda humanoid robot , 1998, Proceedings. 1998 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.98CH36146).

[9]  Masahiro Fujita,et al.  Autonomous behavior control architecture of entertainment humanoid robot SDR-4X , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).

[10]  Toshikazu Kawasaki,et al.  Design of prototype humanoid robotics platform for HRP , 2002, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.