I am developing a new humanoid robot torso. The prototype is being funded. The size of the robot will be about 2 feet tall (from base to top of head). I have done quite a bit of work in Pro/E to get the basic design up. It will go through several changes over several cycles I am sure. The basic structure can be seen here. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

Well, I am here at the University of Southern California Robotic Interaction Lab. I am building an "inexpensive" motion capture suite using inertial measurement units. Each unit is coming in at about 200 dollars, but has 6 DOF. I have designed a radio link between the suit and a host computer that will basically stream the data in. All the sensor parts are on order and the boards are being made. Each IMU is only 1.75x1.75x1" and is interfaced through a minidin connector, which also functions as the programming port. I think the design is solid and we expect that you can capture all movements of the arm, minus the fingers, using just 3 IMUs. So, that makes 6 for the arms, 6 for the legs, 1 for the head, and 1 for the upper torso = 14 in total. That is about $2800 plus another $300 for the link, puts us at about $3100, to capture the entire human body (less fingers & toes). That is a LOT better than $20,000, which is the base price of most of the motion capture systems out there. I am also sketching out the specs for what could turn into a humanoid robot interaction testbed, we will see.

The Mininaut project is now complete (as far as I am concerned :-) It got quite a bit of attention locally by appearing on several news stations and in a couple of newspapers. More importantly, I have secured a postition this summer at the University of Southern California to prototype an inexpensive motion capture suit; that should be a fun project. I think I am changing my research focus, I should be moving to enabling technologies for molecular robots. I have a proposal ready to be submitted for funding in mid May and will be working with several other people from a range of fields, including mathematics, physics, and chemistry. We plan on developing a predictive algorithm for molecular construction of robot parts. Everyone around here seems to think it is going to be a good project, I hope we finish :-) Anyway, if you are interested to know about anything that I have been or am involved with, let me know, I like to discuss these things :-) Oh, and thanks for reading this far!

An almost complete version of the poster I did for the mininaut project is available in powerpoint format on my webpage here. I ended up with first place :-) on to the research competition for the school and then will compete soon for all of the cal state universities. Busy times, hope all is well for everyone else.

Just to let everyone know, I have updated my website with the "Mininaut" project that I am working on. You can view it here

My robot is coming along well (the research one for the university.) I will finish the physical/electronic design this month, then I will start the programming. Not too much to report as far as progress because most of it has been done on the schematic. I did pick up a nice Sony VAIO laptop that is only 4 lbs - NICE! Check out the website that no longer serves as a home for the company I was developing, but rather a portal for robot activity.

If you stopped by LivingCreatures before, this is just to let you know that we have a new chat available to our members.

My companies website, www.LivingCreatures.com , has gone through a complete redesign. Not only does it serve as an information center for our upcoming products, but it is also a complete web portal where you can post to different forums and participate in the community base. Please check it out.

The humanoid robot is coming along well. The structure is carbon fiber, with a little aluminum and brass throughout. I have modified all of the servos for a 4-wire interface and have mounted them. Some are permanently fixed with epoxy, as this was the best way due to the size constraints.

In other news, my company website is up, although it is being redesigned. The tough thing with a start-up is getting everything that needs to be done - done. You can check it out and send me an email on what you think. I should have some photos of the humanoid project available soon.

Wow, it has been a while! My scaled down humanoid project is now funded by the University. Although not designed to perform its original function, it is nice to finally have someone else buying my parts for me :-) I should have a copy of pro/engineer arriving at my door in the next week, which I will use to model the parts. I picked the Axiom PB555 processor to run the robot- this is a kick butt processor, but it is not for the lightweight. I should have more regular updates happening since this project is going to rule my life for the next year.