recently, i had the idea to attach a laser pointer to trashbot’s neck and investigate the amplitudes of the laser on the ceiling. this time, the blog entry is shorter but the “how-to” is in the video:
from the results you can see much better the difference between active balancing:
vs no balancing (the spine is stiff, the upper body moves with the hip, thus larger amplitudes):
with this technique, i hope to be able to document further improvements on the movement, especially when i connect the gait pattern with the balancing mechanisms as scientific robots do.
i recently contrasted trashbot 3’s walk with the spine balancing or bein static and was not happy with the result of the video. one can have the impression that active vs non-active balancing is somewhat similar but in fact the real robot “feels” different as we’ve seen in the video above.
next, i’ll attach a little camera (gopro clone) to the trashbot’s chest to view the gait from “first person” perspective…
