[vimeo = http://vimeo.com/1621390]
The Blind Juggler is a robot that juggles or bounces balls in a controlled manner without any sensory input. It is basically just a linear actuator with a paddle on the end to smack the ball back into the air as it returns to the ground. The crazy thing is, it is doing this based purely on pre programmed math. There are no sensors telling it to make any adjustments. While we could envision this functioning, we would never have expected it to be as stable as it is. You can see in the video above that they can actually move the entire robot around while maintaining the bounce. Also check out the pendulum version, instead of just actuating vertically, it is mounted as a pendulum allowing the ball to travel back and forth in an arc.
[via BotJunkie]
Aha, so it accomplishes this seemingly impossible task by using a concave paddle that forces the ball to remain centered, and plain old physics calculations to ensure that (ideally) the paddle is decelerating when it hits the ball. A ball that bounced too low last time will hit the paddle when it is still moving faster. A ball that bounced too high last time will hit the paddle when it is moving slower.
Very clever indeed. It needs an Arduino, though.
I think it just goes to show that people are normally very lazy and resort to some sort of micro for control (*cough* Ard-bl00dy-uino) when they don’t need to.
Remember kids: maths solves everything.
No Pictures? On MY Hack-A-Day?
Arduino, nothing- it needs Bluetooth!
Can anyone say superfluous nunchuck control scheme?
Pretty awesome though.
cool
So i guess that black cable goes to an arduino? They should show it in the vid!
Wow, that is one small and hard to see ball.
Interesting to see that they used that expensive aluminum extrusion stuff for the frame. Way stiffer than the application needed, but they presumably had it laying around.
Judging by the background gradient in the rendering on their site, they used solidworks. The lighting also gives it away, but that gradient is burned into my mind from highschool.
Why is there an lcd sceen attached to the bottom of the device, and why is the overhead camera shots so perfectly syncd(sp) with the device?
It’s pretty cool I guess.
I don’t think it’s that great though, not great enough for it to get it’s own domain anyway.
I guess I’m more of a person for useful or hardcore hacks.
That is one impressive demo. It tool me awhile to see that there was a small ball being bounced.
Kinda has a cool rhythm to it
So has the robot trained the human to do anything else besides moving the robot base around?
So apparently everyone has forgotten Claude Shannon and his myriad of juggling robots already? His had more style IMO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBHGzRxfeJY
Video contains one of Shannon’s “robots” that could bounce juggling 3 or more objects.
thanks for noticing the concave paddle, jeff-o. I was afraid I was the only one that saw it. from the comments, perhaps we’re the only 2?
That deaf, dumb and blind kid…
sure plays a mean pinball!
i.e. that machine juggles better than I can!
VonSkippy ftw on that one.
-and let’s go to the replay…
its not an arduino controlling it – it a stm32 (cortex m3). im a technician who worked on it for a while.