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Japanese researchers have launched footage of a humanoid robotic referred to as Musashi sitting within the driving seat of an electrical micro-car to look at a attainable future path for autonomous automobile applied sciences.The present push for autonomous autos just about follows the identical path, the place applied sciences reminiscent of LiDAR, imaginative and prescient cameras, GPS, advanced algorithms and controls methods are put in all through the Johnny Cab and work collectively to securely navigate metropolis streets and past.At the very least that is the overall concept, though real-world deployment has been one thing of a blended bag of successes and headline-grabbing failures. However what if automobiles did not have to pack all this superior tech to get from A to B with no human driver on the wheel? That is the path that College of Tokyo researchers and Musashi are headed.Musashi is a “musculoskeletal humanoid” developed by the analysis group in 2019 as a testbed for studying management methods. The shape issue not solely has related proportions to a human counterpart but in addition encompasses a “joint and muscle construction” impressed by the human physique.The robotic has now discovered use in an autonomous driving challenge the place it has been skilled by members of the Jouhou System Kougaku Lab to grasp driving in the same option to people. With various levels of success, as you may see within the video under.
Towards Autonomous Driving by Musculoskeletal Humanoids (RAM 2020)
Musashi’s head is residence to a high-resolution imaginative and prescient digicam in every movable eye, which might pan and tilt to acquire completely different views of the world – straight forward, for instance, or rapidly checking facet mirrors. 5-digit palms on the tip of jointed arms flip the steering wheel as decided by the educational software program and sensor knowledge, whereas additionally having the ability to pull the handbrake, flip an ignition key and function flip signaling. And grippy ft push down on brake and accelerator pedals when wanted.The humanoid sits within the driving seat of a enterprise variant of a single-seater electrical micro-car named the COMS (Chotto Odekake Machimade Suisui), which was launched by Toyota in 2012. The group outfitted the automobile with a Wi-Fi router and Intel NUC PC to run the popularity module in addition to a servo energy provide, although expects such issues to be integrated into future humanoids.
The JSK Lab challenge explored a attainable autonomous automobile future with the assistance of a Musashi humanoid and a COMS micro-EVKento Kawaharazuka et al
The actual-world driving assessments had been undertaken on the College of Tokyo’s Kashiwa Campus, the place Musashi hit the brakes when a human was detected or a automotive horn sounded, and likewise responded to site visitors lights. But it surely wasn’t all clean going, because the software program wasn’t skilled to deal with inclines so sustaining a continuing crawl up hills proved problematic, and turning a nook took minutes somewhat than seconds.But it surely’s clearly very early days for autonomous driving by humanoid. Assuming improvement continues apace, potential benefits to this methodology over automobiles kitted out with autonomous driving tech would possibly embody the automobile itself not needing to be modified, and the robotic driver having the ability to undertake different duties between journeys (reminiscent of carrying the purchasing or switching roles to family helper). The researchers additionally say that the sensor-packed robotic might function a crash check dummy for automakers.A paper on the challenge was first introduced at ICRA 2021 is now accessible on arXiv.Sources: JSK, Kento Kawaharazuka
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