Design of a Humanoid Neck Movements and Eye-Expression Mechanisms
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DESIGN OF A HUMANOID NECK MOVEMENTS AND EYE-EXPRESSION MECHANISMS Bachelor Degree Project in Product Design Engineering Level ECTS 22,5 hp Spring term 2012 Ana Navarrete Ortiz de Lanzagorta Supervisor: Ida-Märta Rhen Examiner: Peter Thorvald I ASSURANCE This project is submitted 2012.06.27 by Ana Navarrete to University of Skövde as a Bachelor Project in Integrated Product Development at the School of Technology and Society. I certify that all material in this Bachelor Degree Project, which is not my work has been identified and that no material is included for which, a degree has previously been conferred on me. Ana Navarrete I ABSTRACT This project aims to design and construct a 3D CAD model of a humanoid robot head; this means the mechanisms that simulate the motions of the neck, the eyes and the eyelids. The project was developed in collaboration with Cognition and Interaction Laboratory at the University of Skövde. From the literature review, it was found that most of the humanoid robots at the market are able to perform neck movements. The problem is that the neck motions today are not smooth as human neck and the movements of face details, such as the eyes and the mouth, are less developed. Only robots created for interaction research between human and robots allows for face expressions. However, the rest of the bodies of such robots are not as well developed as the face. The conclusion is that there is no humanoid robot that presents a full expression face and a well-developed body. This project presents new mechanical concepts for how to provide smooth humanoid neck motions as well as how to show expressions of the robots face. Three parts of the humanoid heads: the neck, the eyes and the eyelids were investigated. By examining different mechanical concepts used today two types of mechanisms were found: parallel and serial. In the neck the serial mechanism was chosen because the motion obtained is smoother. The eyes and the eyelids were designed with a serial mechanism due to the limitations of the space in the head. The three parts were built in to a 3D CAD program in order to test the entire head mechanism. This results in a head mechanism that enables smooth motion of the neck and provides enough degrees of freedom to simulate feelings due to eye expressions. II FOREWORD This Bachelor Degree Project has been held at the School of Technology and Society, at University of Skövde, during the spring term in 2012. There are a lot of people who have helped me during the project and I have to thank, especially: Ida-Märta Rhen, internal supervisor in this project, for the given help along these months, your useful advices and your feedback. Boris Durán, external supervisor in this project, for given the opportunity to work on this interesting and amazing project. Jose Ramón Navarrete, my father, for given possibility to be studying in Sweden and for the huge help provided in this project and in my life in general. III Table of contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Cognition & Interaction Lab (COIN) .................................................................................. 2 1.3 About the Challenge ............................................................................................................ 2 1.4 Aim ...................................................................................................................................... 3 1.5 Limitations .......................................................................................................................... 3 2. Theory Background ............................................................................................................... 4 2.1 Humanoid robots ................................................................................................................. 4 2.2 Robots heads ....................................................................................................................... 5 2.3 Anatomical Data .................................................................................................................. 6 2.3.1 The Neck ...................................................................................................................... 6 2.3.2 The Eyes ....................................................................................................................... 7 2.3.3 The Eyelids ................................................................................................................... 8 2.4 Actuators Mechanisms ........................................................................................................ 8 3. Method: Development process ............................................................................................ 10 3.1 The Front-End Process ...................................................................................................... 10 4. Neck Mechanism ................................................................................................................. 13 4.1 Specifications .................................................................................................................... 13 4.2 Actuators ........................................................................................................................... 13 4.3 Designing options .............................................................................................................. 14 4.3.1 Three-actuator neck .................................................................................................... 15 4.3.2 Two-actuator neck ...................................................................................................... 16 4.4 Development of the options .............................................................................................. 17 4.5 Concept selection .............................................................................................................. 20 5. Eye mechanism ................................................................................................................... 22 5.1 Specifications .................................................................................................................... 22 IV 5.2 Actuators and camera ........................................................................................................ 22 5.3 Designing options .............................................................................................................. 23 5.4 Development of the options .............................................................................................. 24 6. Eyelid mechanism ............................................................................................................... 26 6.1 Specifications .................................................................................................................... 26 6.2 Actuators ........................................................................................................................... 26 6.3 Designing options .............................................................................................................. 27 6.4 Development of the options .............................................................................................. 27 7. Final Model ......................................................................................................................... 29 7.1 Neck, eye and eyelid mechanism ...................................................................................... 29 7.2 Motions ............................................................................................................................. 30 7.2.1 The Neck .................................................................................................................... 30 7.2.2 The Eyes ..................................................................................................................... 31 7.2.3 The Eyelids ................................................................................................................. 32 7.3 Physical data ...................................................................................................................... 32 8. Economic analysis ............................................................................................................... 34 8.1 Financial Model ................................................................................................................ 34 8.2 Estimation of the costs ...................................................................................................... 34 9. Discussion and Recommendations ...................................................................................... 37 References ................................................................................................................................... 39 V Table of figures Figure 1 The measurements of a 4 years old child (Tilley, 2004) ................................................. 2 Figure 2 From left to right and from top to down: ASIMO, ICub, NAO, HRP-4, PINO and Quio, .............................................................................................................................................. 5 Figure