Combat Robotics

[W. Rabbit]

I guess the real question then is more along the lines is does it have to be able to "grapple", does it need the ability to man handle a person and move them from point A to Point B with out their compliance?

That is definitely one element of this project, but it would not limited to grappling techniques (Ideally).

[W. Rabbit]

I've got a sneaky feeling you want to build a sparring droid of some sort. Sounds tough but I imagine it would be a good seller of it could be made cheaply enough.

Edit: gah, cross post again.

I can't use the term "droid" in any marketing sense without paying George Lucas money, did you know that? So anything-Droid is out of the question.

I will bore you with my inspirations some other time but let's just say it involves Dune, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, and the latest Real Doll designs.

[goodlun]

Alright I think I understand the project, a punching bag that hits back and a grappling dummy that submits you.

[maofas]

You're so going to get sued when the Spar-a-tron 2000 fucks someone up.

Even if you programmed it to only hit at a certain prescribed level of force there's so many variables in sparring. A light punch becomes a hard punch if you run your face into it. What if you overdo your evasion and bang your head into a wall? What if you hurt yourself kicking the damn thing? They may not be successful in their attempts to sue you, but they'll still chew up a lot of your money forcing you to defend yourself.

In short develop the idea, sell it to someone else, and live like a king in Mexico while they deal with the lawsuits.

[W. Rabbit]

Here is another inspiration of mine, real robot sumo competitions in Japan, in case anyone is interested in this stuff.

YouTube - Robot Sumo Is Real Sumo!

[W. Rabbit]

You're so going to get sued when the Spar-a-tron 2000 fucks someone up.

Even if you programmed it to only hit at a certain prescribed level of force there's so many variables in sparring. A light punch becomes a hard punch if you run your face into it. What if you overdo your evasion and bang your head into a wall? What if you hurt yourself kicking the damn thing? They may not be successful in their attempts to sue you, but they'll still chew up a lot of your money forcing you to defend yourself.

In short develop the idea, sell it to someone else, and live like a king in Mexico while they deal with the lawsuits.

Thanks maofas. I did think about this, and what might happen if a mangling occurred. I did a brief search of how gyms handle equipment injuries and it seems many gyms and manufacturers are exempt from equipment-related injuries as long as the customer is properly warned/notified about the risks.

And yes, failsafes and safety interlocks would definitely have a big part to play in the design. I am kind of hoping that is where force feedback comes in...the ability of a robot to know just how hard resistance it is meeting and "give" like a human might, as opposed to reacting like a brick wall.

Let's face it: when was the last time a gun manufacturer was successfully sued by someone shooting themselves? As long as its not a defect or clear case of negligence I'd probably be safe, but who knows. And most definitely, I do not have the means to mass produce anything and would have to find someone to build on the prototype.

[Permalost]

To have a realistic sparring partner robot, wouldn’t it have to disregard Asimov’s first two laws of robotics? And would that make you not want to spar it?

[W. Rabbit]

This is the Shadow Dextrous Robot Hand from the Shadow Project, a really amazing robot (that can be purchased by the public through their sales dept...) This thing can completely replicate the human hand right down to grip and sensitivity (ie it can screw in lightbulbs). The spec is open, giving me a lot of interesting material to use. God bless robotics engineers, they always give back to the people.

http://www.shadowrobot.com/downloads...ication_C5.pdf

YouTube - Amazing Robotic Hand



http://www.shadowrobot.com/hand/

[W. Rabbit]

To have a realistic sparring partner robot, wouldn’t it have to disregard Asimov’s first two laws of robotics? And would that make you not want to spar it?

Lucky for us the Three Laws are completely fictional :)

[goodlun]

Lucky for us the Three Laws are completely fictional :)

Yes and so is Skynet but Skynet is the lesson learned by ignoring the 3 laws.