Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Kenzo's Robot

If there were any doubts that I was indeed living in Japan, they have been completely obliterated.  Last night I saw a project Kenzo had done for his job awhile back.  What's his job, you might ask?

Oh nothing, just designing ROBOTS!

Could there be a better reminder that I live in Japan than having someone bring to class the robot they designed and built themselves?

No, I think not.
 
It's a simple gizmo he built mainly for teaching purposes, to show students how to design simple mechanical processes and whatnot.  Still, it's pretty freaking cool.  It moves on what Kenzo called omniwheels, which is basically a wheel with 14 mini-wheels spanning its circumference.  It can move forward, backward, and turn without changing the angle of the wheel with respect to its axis.

Can somebody say "sa-weeeet!"

Oh, he also controls it with a modified PS3 controller.  I couldn't believe it when I saw it; he's building what can only be the eventual progenitor of the Metal Gear mk. II.

Only a hop, skip, and a jump away now, boys!
 
 
Here's a video of it in action.  It's not exacly flawless execution, but it was way cool nonetheless.

 

1 comment:

  1. We've now witnessed true Japanese innovation. I agree, AMAZING.

    ReplyDelete