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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Stickman is Disney's new headless acrobatic robot [techcrunch.com]

The team at Disney Research never fails to deliver fascinating (if not always particularly useful) experiments. Take Stickman [disneyresearch.com]. 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 [ieee.org] (guest post written by Disney researcher Morgan Pope), The Verge [theverge.com], and Engadget [engadget.com].

Stickman: Towards a Human Scale Acrobatic Robot [amazonaws.com]

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

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