WiiBot cuts other Wiimote hacks down to size

While most folks can impress their friends simply by running a few lines of code that instantly turns their Wiimote into a make-believe light saber or drum machine, when you work for a place called US Mechatronics, you're pretty much required to raise the stakes a bit. Heeding that call, a pair of employees at the company decided to take the (relatively) harmless remote into dangerous new territory, putting in some extra time at the "office" to turn the humble Wiimote into a real-time interface for an over-sized robotic arm. After engaging in a quick game of tennis, the pair decided to up the arm's destructive power considerably and outfit it with a sword, which they thankfully caught on video (check it out after the break). Impressive stuff to be sure, although we have to admit that we're a little frightened to think of the possibilities once they finish the robot.

[Via Hack a Day]

[Ben H. @ Jan 25th 2007 5:13PM]

Dude, this is amazing! I love the Wii!

[Sergio @ Jan 25th 2007 5:16PM]

Well, I for one welcome our new robotic overlords.

[drew @ Jan 25th 2007 5:16PM]

it would be cooler if it actually mimic'ed the position of the controller in real time instead of playing back a prerecorded motion.

[ChekOne @ Jan 25th 2007 5:19PM]

Ditto Drew!

[Scabies @ Jan 25th 2007 5:20PM]

That is pretty sweet-action. I wonder, though, if the setup recognizes gestures and mimics them on a pre programmed path (pointing the remote up and raising it overhead makes the arm run "stance_triumphant 1",) or if it actually mirrors the motion of the controller exactly?

[Ron @ Jan 26th 2007 5:28PM]

@scabies

being as they said real time.. i bet it really does mimic the controller...

what i wonder is what happens after the arm runs out of range?

[Rat Bastard @ Jan 25th 2007 5:23PM]

So can they sue Nintendo when the sword slips out of the robot's hand, for not including an adequate strap to hold it in place?

[Brad @ Jan 25th 2007 5:24PM]

That's cool and all, but I'd like to see that sword actually perform a bit of destruction. I leave the target object up to the Engadget audience to figure out.

[Joe V @ Jan 25th 2007 5:38PM]

I'd say that pretty much wraps it up for human civilization. Ah well, we had a good run.

[Christopher Merchant @ Jan 25th 2007 5:46PM]

'Holy Shit?' anyone?

Wow. I'm definitely loving the concept. The lag is, expected, but this is a great little 'forthcoming' as far as robotics goes. Granted, there could be systems like this that you can purchase and I wouldn't know- but this still seems very; very cool, simply by the fact that they hacked the WiiMote to do this.

Chris

[Ivan Kirigin @ Jan 25th 2007 5:47PM]

US Mechatronics?

They make that auto-sentry-gun :-D

[Adam @ Jan 25th 2007 5:49PM]

Now we need to get this robot to do menial tasks so we can sit around and make money off it. anyone want to start up lazyrobotics.com with me?

[Albert Prado @ Jan 25th 2007 5:58PM]

This is just bringing us closer to Gundam like machines. SWEET!!

[snowglyder @ Jan 25th 2007 5:59PM]

... but can it throw Chinese stars?

[Dave @ Jan 25th 2007 6:01PM]

Wiinja?

[Jeff Foster @ Jan 25th 2007 6:05PM]

FAKE!!!

hahah just kidding.

that's some pretty quick and pretty smooth articulation.

...bet that arm has a hefty pricetag.

[Cowboy Bob @ Jan 25th 2007 6:20PM]

oh thats safe.

[Andrew @ Jan 25th 2007 6:39PM]

This would take Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robots to a whole new level.

[Zoundguy @ Jan 25th 2007 6:47PM]

"I leave the target object up to the Engadget audience to figure out." Ill fill in the blank... SONY!!!!!

[2Perfect @ Jan 25th 2007 7:21PM]

That's wonderful. It would be better if you can actually control it. From the video they said they have to program the moves first. But a real person (and a really cool robot) would be able to do it different variations of a single move, which would mean a lot of moves to program.

It's a good step nonetheless. They should work on full non-preprogrammed control next. And faster response (the slow response is understandable) wouldn't be bad either.

Then after that they can improve the range of the wiimote. Then add a full body to the robot, mobilize it, with cameras. After that, it's all about world domination. Unless they want to add artificial intelligence in the robot :P

[tchiseen @ Jan 25th 2007 7:30PM]

okay, first off, that machine is very likely extremely expensive, and these nerds bosses should prolly fire em for doing that, secondly, the robot prolly draws a LOT of electricity, so they're basically jacking up the companies power bill. thirdly, how nerdy are the nerds that did this! Saturdays at the office? making a robot hold a sword and parry?

having said all that, I applaud these people. without this kind of ... behavior, humans would still live in the stone age. bit by bit these people are building the future! good onya.

[rawr @ Jan 25th 2007 8:51PM]

It looks like these things cost from $20,000 and up, so yeah you're right. They're pretty freakin' expensive. I can't imagine the boss being too happy about this. Of course, maybe he's just as big a nerd as they are.

[Seyven @ Jan 25th 2007 10:31PM]

Fairly standard industrial robot. Looks like a Kuka? Coloration could be an ABB, but I'm used to their welders with the springs... So for the heavier lifters, you're talking apx $100,000 US for the higher end. Yeah, it's not chump change, but in the scheme of industrial things? And if anyone wants to talk about hourly costs due to wear on the robot... 10 year life time on them in a production, continous enviroment moving serious loads. The racquet and sword are both well under the rated load on that robot.

Second, if you look, its not like they stole the robot. It's a lab. Tinkering with a robot like that is part of their (and my) job. If I did that, I will tell you my boss would find it cool, as long as I didn't bill them for the time spent doing it.

As for your second comment... at my company, we typicaly fuse our robots at 30 amps @ 480 volts. That is a peak draw, when you're multiple servos on the robot, fast, while carrying a load. "Jacking up the companies power bill" is a bit of an overstatement.

Now... as for the people talking about variety of movement... not really. To say it outright for everyone, think the sword work in Twilight Princess. Same basic thing.

Industrial robots like this are basicaly set up to run a list of programs, and then have an external device/system/controller tell them what job to run, when. The interfacing and everything is already there, since it's what they're set up to do. However, giving free-form instructions as to position and orrientation is normaly done through the robot's own controller. For various reasons (safety being one of them), it's rather hard to get into that portion of it. You'd need to do a fair amount of custom coding, probably semi-special hardware as well. (Okay, this is a bit of a reach on my part - I've never seen a robot being given more than basic offsets by anything other than a Teach Pendant... and that has multiple safety circuits to emulate if you try to replace it...)

[Mark @ Jan 27th 2007 10:43PM]

In reply to: "having said all that, I applaud these people. without this kind of ... behavior, humans would still live in the stone age."

and I applaud you, sir. without people like you, I would not have fresh fries or burgers when I order them.

[Carbonize @ Jan 25th 2007 7:53PM]

Anybody else notice how when he raises the sword and then brings it down again the robot actually moves before he does? So is this robot actually being controlled by the Wiimote or have they just preprogrammed the movements and then are pretending to control the bot?

[Shridhar @ Jan 25th 2007 8:13PM]

what'll be next?
"US Army to deploy wiimote-driven robots"?

[MegaTroopX @ Jan 25th 2007 11:27PM]

what'll be next?
"US Army to deploy wiimote-driven robots"?

You're not far off. Telepresence is highly desired by all the armed forces, both as a safety measure, and a force multiplier. With a little more tweaking, this could speed that process. Why code a multi-million dollar TeP rig from scratch when you can buy a dev kit for a $250 console and get what you need. Just code the TeP client for your Wiibots (The M-2009 "Mario", heh.) and distribute the disc to units. Changing mission? Simple as changing the disc. I'd love to be in that MOS.

These guys could get some mad DARPA money with this.

[critofur @ Jan 25th 2007 9:23PM]

This is not amazing. This is crappy, it's not even following the wiimote in real time so it's pretty pointless. Of course I assumed that it wasn't going to be PRE-PROGRAMMED swings, I assumed that you would actually be able to hit a tennis ball in the air by swining the wiimote, and if the ball was a little lower or a little higher, you just compensate with the swing.

[sonic232 @ Jan 25th 2007 10:24PM]

OK, for all of you that expected real-time movement that exactly copied the wiimote: That would be FREAKIN' IMPOSSIBLE. The wiimote is only ONE point of articulation with a pointer. You would need another part to control the lower and upper arms as well for full articulation. It would be sweet as all get out, but with just a wiimote, impossible. They did what they could with what they had, and it rocked.

[SASbsee @ Jan 25th 2007 10:35PM]

while I just pointed out the difficulty in doing real time control due to technical limitations, what you're saying about only one point of articulation is actualy... not true.

Robots (Fanuc's anyway) like this one have a variety of coordinate systems you can put them in, including one center on the end of the robot. There, you can give it transational (up, down, forword, sideways) movement and rotational movement commands. You tell the robot where to move the 'hand' and it figures out how to move all six joints to acomplish this. I've used all six axis of movement on the wiimote. It detects acceleration and rotation in all six axis. Exactly what the robot needs.

[dime @ Jun 7th 2007 5:44AM]

Hi,
i want to make a virtual wiimote with openGL, and for that i need the rotation matrix from the Wiimote. Can you please tell me, how can i compute the rotation matrix out of the Wiimote

Thanks,
dime vitanovski

[Arnold @ Jan 25th 2007 10:50PM]

Can they use this robotic arm to play with a WII? That would be ... decadent. Like this Photo of the Honda Robot on a Segway.

[Robert @ Jan 25th 2007 11:33PM]

Now this is a Wiibot!

http://supercabra.com/images/contentimages/wiibot.jpg

[Charles @ Jan 26th 2007 12:06AM]

ditto drew as well, if it was real time and everything, would've been ---- awesome

[Kyle @ Jan 26th 2007 3:31AM]

If it were in realtime, that'd be great if they had it hold a Wii controller. Then they could (very) indirectly play a game. Or it could control another arm. And that one would control another...

[alexi @ Jan 26th 2007 4:16AM]

Wasn't he standing just a _little_ too close?
Could this have been first death-by-Wii?

[idk @ Jan 26th 2007 5:05AM]

That's one of the lamest things ever done with a wii mote, it doesn't even really track motion. It's EXTREMELY slow and dumb.

I agree, they should all get fired for waisting their work's money on this garbage.

[Tom Gabriele @ Jan 26th 2007 8:09AM]

dear god. lets hope no one lets the controller slip out of their grasp.

[justin @ Jan 26th 2007 6:46PM]

wow freakin insane.. you have one arm to a freakin huge transformer now just build the rest.. please!

http://www.wiiuser.org

[Jappleng @ Jan 27th 2007 8:31AM]

That's very sexy. BUT... Can it play DOOM?

[Odgit @ Jan 28th 2007 8:25PM]

This would actually be a viable solution for any military operations biggest cost, humans. Don't want to be all ethical and stuff, but what actually drives the common person is her(or his) personal feelings. Most people would not care about the Iraq war if soldiers from the west were not dying in there. Take the 9/11 movie done by Michael Moore, he is obviusly trying to play on people's personal feelings on a touchy subject. Ask yourself this: "Would you care if it was 2 african countries fighting, or maybe even 2 european countries, how about eastern european countries?". Most people would say yes, but how often dont we hear about these things in the media and dont care. And now to go away from that very long path down ethical road.
Robots like these could mean that a lot of dangerous duties (patrolling f.x) could be done with these robots and still have a human controlling it and using it. Since nobody wants A.I. going around wiping people from the earth. Something along the goliath from StarCraft or those really similar [read: identical] things from matrix 3, is what most people have in mind.
Thus suffering less casualties. Not only would this mean less people fallng over to the "against [Insert war]" side but also more people would come back and support the military for their work. Also, who stands the best chance against a sniper? A soldier in uniform? Or a big lumbering robot thingy? They dont even need to be able to walk for most of the guard duties.
Now the point of this rant was basically: The military could actually earn quite a lot from making these robots, tho i can imagine that the price would be enormous. But the way things are going now, the only way to get the money you need for things is keeping people happy. People dont like their friends getting killed in some foreign war.

[Dr. Benway @ Jan 29th 2007 1:49PM]

Can they make a walking eye, like on the Venture Brothers?

[JacKal @ Jan 29th 2007 8:15PM]

Biiiiiggggggggg OOOOOoooooohhhh!!!!

*Roger Smith Voice*

[dime @ Jun 7th 2007 5:40AM]

Hi,

[Andy @ Oct 17th 2008 2:00PM]

4 of those, strategicaly bolted together......strap a wiimote to each shin and forearm.....and away we go