A few days ago, the Google subsidiary company Boston power company announced the new version of Atlas mechanical person's video, completely broke the previous mechanical person center of gravity is not stable, stupid dull image.
The birth of the new Atlas marks a milestone for the erection of the robot, which can not only walk comfortably over rough and unyielding terrain, but also perform human-like operations such as squatting, picking up objects, opening doors, and even maintain its balance in the face of violent blows from a hockey stick. After being pushed down, it not only won't crash, but also can stand up itself.
While bipedal humanoid robots have always been a challenge in academia, Boston dynamics is bringing a lot of skills to some practical applications. Balanced by sensors in the limbs and body, with lidar and stereo sensors in the head for navigation and obstacle avoidance, the new Atlas robot is ready for outdoor and indoor weather.
The use of motor and bearing to imitate the hub of the human being, so as to control the mechanical person's unchanging walk, is often the control method of the mechanical person, and the new Atlas mechanical person can become the first group of foot mechanical person with the combination of skills, its crucial breakthrough plan is to accept the hydraulic power system.
Of course, most robots, including ASIMO robots, use electrical systems, but Marc Raibert (the original Boston dynamics man) has opted for a hydraulic control system as the power source for the new robot.
At this point, the motor industry is more worried about the hydraulic system will replace the motor system, become the mechanical industry in the future preferred power source.
In response, mark leibert said: "we chose the hydraulic system, the important point is that the power level of the motor drive is not enough to meet the functional requirements of the Shared robot. Under the communication volume, there is still a 20-30 times power gap between the higher degree motor and the hydraulic system. The unit energy output density of the hydraulic system is higher than that of the motor, which makes the robot smaller.
If the hydraulic system is superior, why is it that so far most mechanical machines have used electrical systems? Mark leibert suggests that this is because the electrical system is more flexible than the hydraulic system, and as long as the power is on, the encoder and reducer are added, the signal can be read and taken care of.
As for the rest, the motor system has a large number of product solutions. For example, Maxon's motor is the standard configuration of most Japanese and Korean robots, and the maintenance and change are all simple. In terms of gait algorithm, due to the predictability of the motor system itself, it is more convenient to debug than the hydraulic system.
The new Atlas robot USES a heavier hydraulic system, and the deeper reason is that the old motor still can't drive the 180-pound robot to walk. And perfunctory for these inflexible person, balance force is not enough still, in progress process very perhaps can fall down, once fall down to cause electric machine serious damage, will bring annihilation attack to inflexible person. Therefore, it is not so much the hydraulic system will replace the electrical system in the future, but rather the compromise caused by the insufficient skill level at present.
