When Xiaomi introduced its CyberOne humanoid robotic a few months again, it wasn’t completely clear what the corporate was truly going to do with the robotic. Our guess was that reasonably than pretending that CyberOne was going to have some form of sensible goal, Xiaomi would use it as a method of exploring prospects with know-how that will have helpful purposes elsewhere, however there have been no specific recommendations that there can be any precise analysis to come back out of it. In a pleasant shock, Xiaomi roboticists have taught the robotic to do one thing that’s, if not precisely helpful, a minimum of loud: to play the drums.
The enter for this efficiency is a MIDI file, which the robotic is ready to parse into drum beats. It then generates song-length sequences of coordinated whole-body trajectories that are synchronized to the music, which is difficult as a result of the tip effectors have to ensure to actuate the drums precisely on the beat. CyberOne does a reasonably respectable job even when it’s going backwards and forwards throughout the drum package. That is maybe not tremendous cutting-edge humanoid analysis, however it’s nonetheless attention-grabbing to see what an organization like Xiaomi has been as much as. And to that finish, we requested Zeyu Ren, a senior {hardware} engineer on the Xiaomi Robotics Lab, to reply a few questions for us.
IEEE Spectrum: So why is Xiaomi engaged on a humanoid robotic, anyway?
Zeyu Ren: There are three explanation why Xiaomi is engaged on humanoid robots. The primary purpose is that we’re seeing an enormous decline within the labor pressure in China, and the world. We’re engaged on changing the human labor pressure with humanoid robots regardless that there’s a lengthy strategy to go. The second purpose is that we consider humanoid robots are probably the most technically difficult of all robotic types. By engaged on humanoid robots, we are able to additionally use this know-how to resolve issues on different robotic types, resembling quadruped robots, robotic arms, and even wheeled robots. The third purpose is that Xiaomi desires to be probably the most technically superior firm in China, and humanoid robots are attractive.
Why did you select drumming to reveal your analysis?
Ren: After the official launch of Xiaomi CyberOne on August 11, we acquired plenty of suggestions from the general public who didn’t have a background in robotics. They’re extra focused on seeing humanoid robots doing issues that people can not simply do. Truthfully talking, it’s fairly tough to search out such situations, since we all know that the primary prototype of CyberOne is much behind people.
However sooner or later, one in every of our engineers who had simply begun to play drums recommended that drumming could also be an exception. She thought that in comparison with rookie drummers, humanoid robots have extra benefits in hand-foot coordinated movement and rhythmic management. All of us thought it was a good suggestion, and drumming itself is tremendous cool and attention-grabbing. So we select drumming to reveal our analysis.
What was probably the most difficult a part of this analysis?
Ren: Essentially the most difficult a part of this analysis was that when receiving the lengthy sequences of drum beats, CyberOne must assign sequences to every arm and leg and generate steady collision-free whole-body trajectories inside the {hardware} constraints. So, we extract the essential beats and construct our drum beat movement trajectory library offline by optimization. Then, CyberOne can generate steady trajectories per any drum rating. This method offers extra freedom to CyberOne taking part in drums, and is barely restricted by the robotics functionality.
What various things do you hope that this analysis will assist your robotic do sooner or later?
Ren: Drumming requires CyberOne to coordinate whole-body motions to attain a quick, correct, and huge vary of motion. We first need to discover the restrict of our robotic by way of {hardware} and software program to supply a reference for the next-generation design. Additionally, via this analysis, we’ve got fashioned a whole set of automated drumming strategies for robots to carry out completely different songs, and this expertise additionally helps us to extra rapidly notice the event of different musical devices to be performed by robots.
What are you engaged on subsequent?
Ren: We’re engaged on the second era of CyberOne, and hope to additional enhance its locomotion and manipulation capacity. On the {hardware} degree, we plan so as to add extra levels of freedom, combine self-developed dexterous palms, and add extra sensors. On the software program degree, extra sturdy management algorithms for locomotion and imaginative and prescient might be developed.
