Walky: Direct Operation Method with Self-projectable Finger Gesture for Bipedal Robots

Yuta Sugiura，Gota Kakehi，Anusha Withana，Daisuke Sakamoto，Masahiko Inami and Takeo Igarashi

Abstract

We propose a novel operating method for a bipedal walking robot through personalized gesture expressions of fingers. Bipedal walking robot mimics the human walking for certain extend and fingers can be used as analogy to human legs. Moreover, fingers not only have visual resemblance but also can mimic actions of legs such as walking, running, kicking or turning, very easily. We are capturing these finger gestures as the controlling method for a bipedal walking robot. We believe that it provides a very intuitive controlling interface since user does not have to go through a complex learning cycle to understand the instructions. Finger actions are captured in both functionality and speed and transferred to the robot.

Demonstrations

Movie demo

Publication

Yuta Sugiura, Charith Lasantha Fernando, Anusha Indrajith Withana, Gota Kakehi, Daisuke Sakamoto, Maki Sugimoto, Masahiko Inami, Takeo Igarashi, and Masa Inakage, An Operating Method for a Bipedal Walking Robot for Entertainment, ACM SIGGRAPH ASIA 2009 Emerging Technologies, pp79-79, Yokohama, December 2009. [PDF][Link]

Link

Walky robot understands iPhone gestures, football fanaticism (video), engadget, Nov 17, 2009. [Link]
iPhone controlled bipedal walking robot with multi-touch gestures, Make, Nov 13, 2009. [Link]
Control Your Robot with iPhone Finger Gestures using “Walky”, PLASTIC PALS. [Link]
Walky: Using natural finger gestures to control humanoid robots (Video), robots dreams. [Link]

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