Free-Standing and Quadrupedal Walking (Or Raising a Foot and Taking a Step) of Gundam and Zaku As They Engage in Sumo Wrestling Yuya Kaneko February 27, 2015 1
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GUNDAM GLOBAL CHALLENGE “Design Ideas” Proposal for the Real Entertainment Section Free-standing and quadrupedal walking (or raising a foot and taking a step) of Gundam and Zaku as they engage in sumo wrestling Yuya Kaneko February 27, 2015 1. Preliminary Remarks While this design proposal includes content from published works of other authors, I believe this use to be permissible under Article 30.3 of Japan’s Copyright Law (“Exploitation in the course of an Examination”) [1]. I would also like to note in advance that although my proposal calls for the creation of a Zaku robot in addition to Gundam, I don’t consider this to be in violation of the requirements. While the requirements for the Real Entertainment Section of the Gundam GLOBAL CHALLENGE explicitly call for movement of an 18 m-high Gundam, they do not state that a Zaku cannot be created. 2. Overview of Proposal •When I heard that a full-scale Gundam has to move, I assumed that both Gundam fans and non-Gundam fans would expect the robot to be free-standing and walking. •However, achieving free-standing motion of a humanoid robot even at human-size remains a Fig. 1 Gundam and Zaku locked in battle in a gappuri- serious research challenge, to which enormous time and effort continues to be invested. It yotsu-like position (gappuri-yotsu is a sumo hold in which would therefore be very difficult to achieve free-standing and walking of an 18 m-high, 40-ton two wrestlers are locked together, each with a firm grip with both hands on the other’s belt) robot by 2019. •In light of the above observations, I decided to try and create both a Gundam robot and Zaku robot and combine them so that they are locked together in a tussle, in the style of a gappuri-yotsu sumo hold, thereby effectively creating a single quadruped robot that is free-standing and moves without any support other than that of their four legs. •The main points of appeal of this solution are as follows. - Since quadrupedal movement can ensure that three-point support can be maintained at all times, it enables more stable motion than bipedal movement. - Zaku (MS-06 Zaku II) is a well-known (Mobile Suit) robot of the Gundam series, second only to Gundam (RX-78-2) in terms of popularity and recognition, so there are high hopes that a full-scale statue of Zaku will also be created. This design proposal fulfills these hopes. - The idea of Gundam and Zaku grappling with each other and performing quadrupedal movement avoids the technically difficult challenges of bipedal movement, but at the same time the sight of the two robots pressing against each other offers dramatically compelling action that can enhance entertainment value. •Finally, based on the idea of using two robots to achieve a quadrupedal structure, this design proposal narrows down its goal for movement to “raising a foot and taking a step,” in order to lighten the technical demands of the challenge. 転載禁止/All rights reserved. GUNDAM GLOBAL CHALLENGE ©創通・サンライズ 3. Combining Gundam and Zaku for quadrupedal movement Index 3.1 Expectations of a moving Gundam When the 18 m-high full-scale statue of Gundam was completed, Gundam fans were obviously very excited, but non-Gundam fans too 1 Preliminary remarks seemed to be overwhelmed by the statue. On the other hand, when I spoke to an acquaintance who is not a Gundam fan about the giant statue, 2 Overview of proposal his immediate response was to ask, “Does it walk?” Of course, anyone with a certain amount of engineering knowledge would realize that an 18 3 Combining Gundam and Zaku for quadrupedal m-high robot could not possibly free-standing and walk on two legs. At the same time, for Gundam fans the sight of a full-scale standing Gundam movement robot is so exciting that they are left satisfied. Undeniably, though, to 3.1 Expectations of a moving Gundam ordinary people a huge Gundam that does not move might as well be 3.2 Bipedal and quadrupedal movement made of papier-mâché. This is how I see it, at least. That is why I want the 3.3 Method for achieving quadrupedal movement next full-scale Gundam series robot to be free-standing-and-moving, and 3.4 Significance of creating Zaku that is also what many people expect. 3.5 Practicability of leg movement 3.2 Bipedal and Quadrupedal Movement 3.6 Movement patterns It is only natural that humanoid robots walk on two legs, just like 3.7 Fixing a foot humans. The release in 2000 of the ASIMO bipedal motion robot by 3.8 Design problems Honda [2], which is free-standing and moved its two legs and performed 3.9 Area needed for movement various other physical actions, was big news. The creation of biped walking robots has been a long-held dream and a great deal of energy is 3.10 Ensuring the safety of spectators still being poured into research in this field. Robots such as PETMAN [3] and ATLAS [4], [5], by Boston Dynamics and the Defense Advanced 4 A realistic proposal Research Projects Agency (DARPA), respectively, have achieved natural walking motion, as opposed to the sliding style movements typical of 5 Other hopes previous biped robots. Although such natural biped motion is possible at human scale, it cannot be done with a huge 18 m-high robot. In bipedal 6 Selection criteria and verification of project walking, it is necessary to move the upper body in synch with leg movement. (If you pay close attention while walking, you will note that requirements when you lift one foot, your upper body will shift towards the other foot, 6.1 Proposal evaluation which remains on the ground.) We have to find solutions for the response 6.2 Technical evaluation speed for this and other actions, for shifting weight onto one foot, for the influence of wind, etc. In addition, the potential destruction caused by the 7 Impressions huge robot toppling over due to an earthquake or sudden gust of wind would make it necessary to satisfy a very stringent level of safety to 転載禁止/All rights reserved. GUNDAM GLOBAL CHALLENGE ©創通・サンライズ avoid the slightest risk of the robot falling over. It is therefore extremely case of a two-robot quadrupedal motion, the maximum weight difficult for now to make an 18 m-high robot is free-standing and walks. It load carried by one foot is only two-thirds (2/3) of the robot might be possible to create the illusion that the robot is free-standing and weight—significantly less than for bipedal motion. When it comes walking on two legs, utilizing some kind of external support, like the to supporting a weight of tens of tons, this reduction in load of parallel safety bars used for walking rehabilitation, but the presence of one-third the robot weight is very important. For all these reasons, such supporting structures close to the huge Gundam would adversely I concluded that it might be possible to employ quadrupedal affect the look of photos or video, and the impact of the robot’s motion motion to produce free-standing-and-walking of an 18 m-high would be greatly reduced. And if support wires were used it would be robot. difficult to achieve walking-style movement. Since the current Gundam 3.3 Method for achieving quadrupedal movement statue has already been free-standing since 2009, the next giant Gundam Since Gundam is a biped, it can only be made to perform robot should also be expected to stand and function without any external quadrupedal motion by putting it on all fours and getting it to support. crawl. It would no longer be a standing statue, however, and such An alternative method of robot movement and motion makes use of a sight would be of little interest to anyone. Therefore, I opted to more than two legs. Another robot created by the previously mentioned create Zaku, a second full-scale robot, and combine it with Boston Dynamics is the four-legged Big Dog [6], [7], which has drawn Gundam to create what is effectively a single quadruped motion considerable attention for its speed of movement and its remarkable robot structure (2 legs × 2). More specifically, as shown by Fig. 1, stability—it does not topple over even if kicked hard. Obviously, the idea is to have the two robots facing each other and locked quadrupedal movement is inherently more stable than bipedal together like two sumo wrestlers applying the gappuri-yotsu hold movement. It is particularly good that this robot is able to maintain three on each other. Thus, two robots are joined to create, in effect, a points of support while moving. Like the fundamental technique taught in single quadrupedal motion robot. Note that the Zaku referred to in mountain climbing, securing three points of support before proceeding to this design proposal is MS-06 Zaku II. Conceivably, if the robots the next foothold, three-point support can create sufficient stability to could be joined by their arms the supporting parts (steel frame) prevent falling over. When there are only two points of support, there is would be invisible from the outside, resulting in a natural always a risk of falling over across the line directly connecting the two appearance. Strength would probably be an issue, though, so the points. In the case of three-pointed support, however, if the center of idea is to put them into a gappuri-yotsu position to bring their gravity is located within the triangular plane defined by the three chests and waists together and to join them at these locations grounded points (here “grounded” is not meant in the sense of electrical using supporting parts.