SoylentNews

takyon writes:

Stickman is Disney's new headless acrobatic robot

The team at Disney Research never fails to deliver fascinating (if not always particularly useful) experiments. Take Stickman. The robot is essentially one long limb, capable of some cool acrobatic maneuvers.

The system, detailed in a new paper from DR titled "Towards a Human Scale Acrobatic Robotic," has two degrees of freedom and a pendulum it uses to launch itself in the air after swinging on a rope. The relatively simple robot tucks and folds, somersaulting in the air before landing on the padding below.

Those aerials are executed courtesy of a built-in laser range finder and six axis inertial measurement unit (a combination gyroscope/accelerometer), which calculate its position in-flight and adjust its positioning accordingly.

Also at IEEE (guest post written by Disney researcher Morgan Pope), The Verge, and Engadget.

Stickman: Towards a Human Scale Acrobatic Robot

Related: UCLA Mathematicians Bring Ocean to Life for Disney's 'Moana'
"Quasistatic Cavity Resonance" Used to Wirelessly Power Devices in a Room
Catching a Real Ball in Virtual Reality

Original Submission