Dennis Hong：七种全地形机器人

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http://dotsub.com/view/2baa330f-87a4-4d5e-ad13-db5b393232b0
Dennis Hong：七种全地形机器人
第一个要介绍的机器人叫STriDER(Stride迈大步，Strider迈大步者)。 全称是自激式三足动态实验机器人 (Self-excited Tripedal Dynamic Experimental Robot)。 这种机器人 受自然界的启发有三条腿。 不过您在自然界中 见过三条腿的动物吗？ 应该没有。 那我们为什么要称其为仿生机器人呢？运作原理是什么呢？ 说之前，先看看当下流行文化。 您应该知道赫伯特·乔治·威尔斯（H.G. Wells）的小说《世界大战》，以及由此改编的电影。 您现在看到的是一款流行 视频游戏。 在小说里，威胁地球的外星生物 被描述成三足机器人。 不过我的机器人，STriDER，不是这样移动的。
这是一段真实的动态仿真动画。 我要展示的是机器人是如何移动行走的。 空中转体180度。 其中一条腿，在另两条腿中间荡秋千。 这是他的行走方式。不过研究一下 我们人类的两足行走， 人类不是用肌肉 提起一条腿迈出去，像机器人那样。对吧？ 我们实际上是把一条腿荡出去，然后落地， 站稳，然后再荡腿...落地...。 使用您的身体内置动力，身体动力 就像一个钟摆。 我们称之为被动动力运动概念。 身体直立情况下，您所做的就是 把势能转变 为动能。 这是一个不断下落的过程。 所以，虽然自然界中没有三足动物， 实际上我们还是受到了生物的启发 把这套原理运用于这种机器人， 所以它是仿生机器人。
您这里所见的就是我们下一步的目标。 我们要让机器人把腿像弹簧一样折叠起来，然后弹射出去，做长距离运动。 然后展开腿，就像星球大战一样。 落地有，机器人的三条腿吸收落地震动，然后开始步行。 这里面黄色的区域，不是死光。 这演示的是装有一部摄像机 或者其他类型的传感器， 因为机器人个高，有1.8米高， 可以从灌木丛之类的障碍物上方露出头观察。
我们有两种型号的原型机。 第一个型号，在后面，那是STriDER I型。 前面那个，小一点儿的，是STriDER II型。 STriDER I型遇到的问题是 机器人太重了。我们装了太多的马达， 诸如调整关节之类的东西。 所以，我们决定综合成一个机械机构， 我们就可以用一部马达，代替所有的马达， 我们就可以协调所有的动作。 这是用机械解决办法，代替机电一体化。 所以现在机器人上部机体就够轻巧了，可以在实验室内走路。 这是向成功迈出第一步。 还不完美。这个实验机器人摔倒了， 所以后面还有我们忙的。
第二个要介绍的机器人缩写是IMPASS。 它带有驱动辐条系统的智能移动平台（Intelligent Mobility Platform with Actuated Spoke System）。 它是一种“轮-腿“混合机器人。 无框轮， 或者叫辐条轮。 每个辐条都可以缩进缩出轮毂。 所以它是”轮腿”混合机器人。 我们又重新发明了一种轮子。 让我演示一下工作原理。 这段视频中我们用了一种方法 被称为响应式方法。 只在利用足部的触觉传感器， 这机器人在崎岖不平的地形行走， 地面柔软，随着它的下压而改变。 仅依靠足部传感器的信息， 它成功的跨越了这些地形。
不过，它遇到极端地形时， 如视频中显示的，一个三倍于 机器人高度的障碍物， 它会切换到谨慎模式， 这里机器人利用激光测距仪， 和摄像系统，来找出障碍和测量大小， 作出相应的对策，仔细的策划辐条的动作， 同时协调好各部分动作，这样显示出 令人惊讶的机动性。 你可能从来没有见过这样的机器人。 这是一部机动性很高的机器人 这就是我们开发的，叫做IMPASS的机器人。 很酷吧？
您开车的时候， 转动方向盘，这种方式 叫阿克曼转向。 前轮像这样转动。 对于那些小型轮式机器人， 它们一般采用差速转向， 也就是左轮和右轮向相反方向转动。 对于IMPASS机器人，我们可以采用不同方式的转向运动。 如视频中演示的那样，它的左右轮连接在一个轴上， 以同样的转速转动。 不同的是，我们依靠调解辐条的长度实现转向。 辐条长度的变化改变了辐条轮的直径大小，以此实现左右转弯。 这些只是一些IMPASS可以做的巧妙动作 的事例。
这个机器人叫CLIMBeR(攀登者)， 全称是：钢缆吊肢智能匹配行为机器人(Cable-suspended Limbed Intelligent Matching Behavior Robot.)。 我曾和许多NASA喷气推进实验室的科学家们聊过， 在喷气推进实验室，最出名的就是火星车。 科学家们和地质学家们经常告诉我， 真正有趣的科学、 富含科学知识的地点就是在悬崖峭壁上。 不过目前火星车还探测不了峭壁。 受此启发，我们要建造一台 攀登峭壁的机器人。
那就是CLIMBeR机器人。 它有三条腿。可能很难看到， 但它顶部有一个绞盘，一条钢缆。 它正在测算最好的立足点。 一旦测算好， 它会实时计算出力的分布。 计算出需要施加多大的力， 确保不翻下来，不打滑。 一旦稳定下来，抬起一条腿， 然后利用绞盘，可以向上爬一点点。 也可以应用在搜索和救援工作上。
五年前，我夏季在NASA喷气推进实验室 做教员研究员。 他们有个六足机器人，称作LEMUR。 基于此我们开发一台机器人，称作MARS(Mars, 火星) 多附体机器人系统（Multi-Appendage Robotic System）。它是一种六足机器人。 我们开发了自适应步态规划软件。 我们放了一个十分有趣的有效载荷。 学生们喜欢有趣的机器人。您可以看到 机器人在不规则地形上行走。 它试图在粗糙地形上行走， 沙地上， 取决于水分含量或沙粒大小的 脚下的泥土下沉模式变化。 机器人自适应的调整步态以便成功翻越这类地形。 除此之外，它还可以做出一些搞笑的事。 我们的实验室有很多参观者。 有参观者来的时候，MARS机器人会走到计算机旁边， 并输入“你好！我叫MARS。” 欢迎来到RoMeLa， 弗吉尼亚理工大学的“机器人技术与机械实验室（RoMeLa）。
这个机器人是一个变形虫机器人。 我们没有时间讲述技术细节， 我将展示些实验。 这是一些早期的可行性实验。 弹性表皮上存有势能，使之移动。 利用一个有张力绳子 使之前进和后退。它被称为嵌合体(ChIMERA)。 我们还和来自宾州大学的科学家 和工程师合作， 开发出化学驱动版本的 变形虫机器人。 我们鼓捣一下， 然后，就像变魔术，它移动了。就像科幻电影The Blob。
这个机器人是最近的项目。它叫RAPHaEL 带有弹性韧带的气压机器手臂 (Robotic Air Powered Hand with Elastic Ligaments)。 市面上有不少不错的机器手臂。 不过动辄就要几万美元太贵了。 对于假肢应用可能不太现实， 因为太贵了。 我们想到一个非常不同的方法去解决这个问题。 不使用电动马达，机电执行器， 而是用压缩空气作动力。 我们开发这些新型驱动器的关节。 它是兼容的。你其实可以通过调节气压 就很容易地来改变驱动力的大小。 它的力气可以压扁一个空可乐罐。 也可以握住易碎的物体，如生鸡蛋 或如这展示的电灯泡。 最棒的是，这个原型机仅花费200美元。
这部机器人实际上是一系列蛇形机器人， 我们称之为HyDRAS， 高自由度铰接式蛇形机器人（Hyper Degrees-of-freedom Robotic Articulated Serpentine）。 这是一个可以攀爬的机器人。 这是一个HyDRAS型机器臂。 它有12个自由度的机器臂。 不过最酷的是用户接口。 这些电缆是光纤。 这名学生，可能是第一次使用， 她可以用很多不同的方法操作。 例如在伊拉克，在战区， 常有路边炸弹。 目前，派出的是遥控武装车辆。 它需要很多时间和花费 来培训控制这复杂武装车辆的操作员。 在这种情况下，这个机器手臂很直观。 这名学生可能是第一次使用，就能完成复杂的操作任务， 拾取物体，操作， 就像这样，非常直观。
这部机器人，是我们的明星机器人。 我们有个DARwIn机器人兴趣小组， 智能动力人形机器人(Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot With Intelligence)。 我们对人形机器人， 人类行走机器人，非常感兴趣， 我们决定造一个小型人形机器人。 在2004年，那时 这是革命性的东西。 更多的是可行性研究， 应该选用什么样的马达？ 可行吗？我们做什么样的控制？ 这个机器人没有传感器。 它是开环控制。 如您所知，如果没有控制器 稍有扰动就会出问题。 （笑声）
基于此，翌年， 我们做了正确的机械设计， 从运动学开始。 2005年，DARwIn I型诞生。 站立，行走，令人印象深刻。 然而，如你所见 它是有线的，还有一条脐带。我们还是用的外部电源， 以及外部运算。
2006年，正是时候可以找乐子了。 给他智能。我们给它所需的计算能力， 1.5GHz的Pentium M处理器， 两个火线（IEEE1394）摄像头,8个陀螺仪，一个加速度计， 足部四个力矩传感器，锂电池。 DARwIn II是全部自主式的。 不用远程遥控。 没有外接连线。它查看四周，寻找球， 再查看四周，寻找球，试着踢足球， 自主式的踢球，实现人工智能。 看看它的能耐。这是我们第一次测试， 视频：进球了！
有个竞赛叫机器人世界杯赛。 我不知道你们知不知道机器人世界杯赛。 机器人世界杯赛是自主式机器人足球赛事。 机器人世界杯赛的目标是， 到2050年 我们有人类大小的自主式人形机器人 与人类的世界杯冠军队进行足球比赛 而且要胜利。 非常实际的目标。非常有野心的目标， 我们认为我们可以做到。
去年在中国。 我们是美国在人形机器人比赛获得比赛资格的 第一个团队。 今年在奥地利举行。 三对三 完全自主的机器人。 不错。很好！ 机器人跟踪，踢球， 组队对抗。 令人印象深刻。这实际上是 裹着竞赛外衣的科研工作。 这张照片是漂亮的 奖杯（Louis Vuitton Cup路易威登提供的奖杯）。 这是颁发给最佳人形机器人的， 明年我们希望可以首次把它带回美国， 希望我们走运。 谢谢。 （掌声）
DARwIn还有其他的才能。 去年假日音乐会上，它实际指挥罗阿诺克 交响乐团。 这是下一代，DARwIn四型， 更小，更快，更有力。 它正在展示它的能力。 “我是男子汉，我很结实。” 我可以做些成龙式的 武术动作。 （笑声） 它走开。这是DARwIn四型， 你可以在大厅里看到。 我们确信这将是第一个运行 在美国的人形机器人。因此，敬请关注。
好了，我展示给大家我们有趣的机器人。 那么我们成功的秘诀是什么呢？ 我们从哪里想出这些点子呢？ 我们如何发展这些点子呢？ 我们有全自主式车辆 可以穿行在城市里。我们赢了DARPA挑战赛的50万 美元。 我们有世界上第一辆 盲人驾驶汽车。 我们称之为，盲人驾驶员的挑战， 还有许多其他的机器人项目。 这些是2007年秋天我们赢得的奖项， 从机器人竞赛之类的活动中取得的。
实际上我们有5个秘诀。 第一，我们从哪里得到的启发， 从哪里得到灵感的？ 这是我个人切身经历的。 凌晨三四点钟的时候我上床睡觉， 我躺下，闭上眼睛，一些线环 和其他形状的东西浮现在脑海中， 拼凑起来，它们组成了一些机器。 然后我想，“这个很棒。” 就在我的床头有一个记事本， 日记，带有一个特殊的配有LED灯光的钢笔， 因为我不想开灯弄醒我的妻子。
我看到这些绘图，涂鸦上我的想法， 然后睡觉。 每天早上， 喝咖啡刷牙之前的第一件事， 我打开笔记本。 通常是空的， 有时候，就是一些胡写乱画上去的， 有时候，我都看不懂我的笔迹。 凌晨4点写的东西，你说能好到哪里去？ 我得辨识我的潦草字迹。 有时候，我会看到巧妙的点子， 我就有了这种瞬间灵感Eureka。（Eureka阿基米德发现浮力后喊道的） 我直接跑到书房去，坐在计算机旁边， 输入下我的点子，我勾画出来的东西， 我有一个点子数据库。 当我们需要建议的时候， 我就会在我的潜在点子库中找合适的 点子， 如果匹配我就写一个研究建议， 获得研究经费，这就是我们如何开始我们的研究计划。
仅仅是一丝灵感，还不够。 我们如何发展这些点子呢？ 在机器人技术与机械实验室（RoMeLa）， 我们有这个神奇的头脑风暴会议。 我们聚在一起讨论问题， 社会问题，诸如此类的。 讨论之前，我们设定一个规矩。 规矩是： 不准批评别人的点子。 不准指责任何意见。 这很重要，因为，很多时候，学生们 害怕别人 批评他们的点子或主意。
一旦你这样做， 你就会惊异地发现学生们的创造力。 他们有光怪陆离的点子， 整个房间里充满了创意能量。 这是我们如何发展这些点子的。
时间不够了，我再说一点 只有点子和拓展是不够的。 有一个TED瞬间， 我想他是Ken Robinson，对吗？ 他在TED讲过 学校教育扼杀了创造力。 实际上，这是有正负两面性的。 人们只能做这么多， 非凡的点子 和有创造力的工程直觉。 如果你想超越， 超越机器人爱好 真正通过枯燥的研究应对机器人学的 巨大挑战， 我们需要更多的东西。这些东西都是学校教的。
蝙蝠侠和坏人战斗， 蝙蝠侠有著名的万能腰带、绳钩， 还有其他的小玩意儿。 对于我们，机器人学家，工程师，科学家， 这些工具就是在教室里的课程。 数学，微分方程。 线性代数，科学，物理， 更有，今天讲到的诸如化学，生物学。 这些都是我们需要的工具。 工具越多， 蝙蝠侠才能更有效的对抗坏人， 对于我们，工具越多就是解决问题的知识。 所以教育至关重要。
不仅仅是这些， 你还要非常努力工作。 我常常告诫我的学生们 学会聪明地工作，然后努力工作。 这张照片是凌晨三点拍的。 如果您凌晨3、4点来我们实验室， 您会看到学生们还在那里， 不是我要求的，而是他们有兴趣做。 这就是最后一个主题。 别忘了找乐子。 这是我们成功的秘诀，我们工作中充满了乐趣。 我认为人有多大乐，地有多大产。 这就是我们的工作。 就到这里吧。
感谢各位听众。
（掌声）


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Dennis Hong: My seven species of robot
So, the first robot to talk about is called STriDER. It stands for Self-excited Tripedal Dynamic Experimental Robot. It's a robot that has three legs, which is inspired by nature. But have you seen anything in nature an animal that has three legs? Probably not. So, why do I call this a biologically-inspired robot? How would it work? But before that, let's look at pop culture. So, you know H.G. Wells War of the Worlds novel and movie. And what you see over here is a very popular video game. In the fiction they describe these alien creatures are robots that have three legs that terrorize Earth. But my robot, STriDER, does not move like this.

So, this is an actual dynamic simulation animation. I'm just going to show you how the robot works. It flips its body 180 degrees. It swings its leg between its two legs to catch the fall. So, that's how it walks. But when you look at us human being, bipedal walking, what you're doing is you're not really using a muscle to lift your leg and walk like a robot. Right? What you're doing is you really swing your leg and catch the fall, stand up again, swing your leg and catch the fall. Using your built-in dynamics, the physics of your body, just like a pendulum. We call that the concept of passive dynamic locomotion. What you're doing is, when you stand up, potential energy to kinetic energy, potential energy to kinetic energy. It's a constantly falling process. So, even though there is nothing in nature that looks like this, really we were inspired by biology and applying the principles of walking to this robot, thus it's a biologically inspired robot.

What you see over here, this is what we want to do next. We want to fold up the legs and shoot it up for long-range motion. And it deploys legs, it looks almost like Star Wars. When it lands, it absorbs the shock and starts walking. What you see over here, this yellow thing, this is not a death ray. This is just to show you that if you have cameras or different type of sensors because it is tall, it's 1.8 meters tall, you can see over obstacles like bushes and those kind of things.

So we have two prototypes. The first version, in the back, that's STriDER I. The one in front, the smaller, is STriDER II. The problem that we had with STriDER I is it was just too heavy in the body. We had so many motors, you know, aligning the joints, and those kinds of things. So, we decided to synthesize a mechanical mechanism so we can get rid of all the motors, and with a single motor we can coordinate all the motions. It's a mechanical solution to a problem, instead of using mechatronics. So, with this now, the top body is light enough so it can walk in a lab. This was the very first successful step. It's still not perfected. It's coffee falls down, so we still have a lot of work to do.

The second robot I want to talk about is called IMPASS. It stands for Intelligent Mobility Platform with Actuated Spoke System. So, it's a wheel-leg hybrid robot. So, think of a rimless wheel, or a spoke wheel. But the spokes individually move in and out of the hub. So, it's a wheel-leg hybrid. We are literally re-inventing the wheel here. Let me demonstrate how it works. So, in this video we're using an approach called reactive approach. Just simply using the tactile sensors on the feet, it's trying to walk over a changing terrain, a soft terrain where it pushes down and changes. And just by the tactile information it successfully crosses over these type of terrain.

But, when it encounters a very extreme terrain, in this case, this obstacle is more than three times the height of the robot, Then it switches to a deliberate mode, where it uses a laser range finder, and camera systems, to identify the obstacle and the size, and it plans, carefully plans the motion of the spokes, and coordinates it so that it can show this kind of very very impressive mobility. You probably haven't seen anything like this out there. This is a very high mobility robot that we developed, called IMPASS. Ah! isn't that cool?

When you drive your car, when you steer your car, you use a method called Ackermann steering. The front wheels rotate like this. For most of those small wheeled robots they use a method called differential steering where the left and right wheel turn the opposite direction. For IMPASS, we can do many many different type of motion. For example, in this case, even though left and right wheel is connected with a single axle, rotating at the same angle of velocity. We just simply change the length of the spoke. It affects the diameter, and then it turns to the left, turns to the right. So, these are just some examples of the neat things that we can do with IMPASS.

This robot is called CLIMBeR, Cable-suspended Limbed Intelligent Matching Behavior Robot. So, I've been talking to a lot of NASA JPL scientists, at JPL they are famous for the Mars rovers. And the scientists, geologists always tells me that the real interesting science, the science-rich sites, are always at the cliffs. But the current rovers can not get there. So, inspired by that we wanted to build a robot that can climb a structured cliff environment.

So, this is CLIMBeR. So, what it does, it has three legs. It's probably difficult to see, but it has a winch and a cable at the top. And it tries to figure out the best place to put its foot. And then once it figures that out in real time it calculates the force distribution. How much force it needs to exert to the surface so it doesn't tip and doesn't slip. Once it stabilizes that it lifts a foot, and then with the winch, it can climb up these kind of thing. Also for search and rescue applications as well.

Five years ago I actually worked at NASA JPL during the summer as a faculty fellow. And they already had a six legged robot called LEMUR. So, this is actually based on that. This robot is called MARS, Multi-Appendage Robotic System. So, it's a hexapod robot. We developed our adaptive gait planner. We actually have a very interesting payload on there. The students like to have fun. And here you can see that it's walking over unstructured terrain. It's trying to walk on the coarse terrain, sandy area, but depending on the moisture content or the grain size of the sand the foot's soil sinkage model changes. So, it tries to adapt its gait to successfully cross over these kind of things. And also, it does some fun stuff, as can imagine. We get so many visitors visiting our lab. So, when the visitors come, MARS walks up to the computer, starts typing "Hello, my name is MARS." Welcome to RoMeLa, the Robotics Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech.

This robot is an amoeba robot. Now, we don't have enough time to go into technical details, I'll just show you some of the experiments. So, this is some of the early feasibility experiments. We store potential energy to the elastic skin to make it move. Or use an active tension cords to make it move forward and backward. It's called ChIMERA. We also have been working with some scientists and engineers from UPenn to come up with a chemically actuated version of this amoeba robot. We do something to something And just like magic, it moves. The blob.

This robot is a very recent project. It's called RAPHaEL. Robotic Air Powered Hand with Elastic Ligaments. There are a lot of really neat, very good robotic hands out there in the market. The problem is they're just too expensive, tens of thousands of dollars. So, for prosthesis applications it's probably not too practical, because it's not affordable. We wanted to go tackle this problem in a very different direction. Instead of using electrical motors, electromechanical actuators, we're using compressed air. We developed these novel actuators for joints. It is compliant. You can actually change the force, simply just changing the air pressure. And it can actually crush an empty soda can. It can pick up very delicate objects like a raw egg, or in this case, a lightbulb. The best part, it took only $200 dollars to make the first prototype.

This robot is actually a family of snake robots that we call HyDRAS, Hyper Degrees-of-freedom Robotic Articulated Serpentine. This is a robot that can climb structures. This is a HyDRAS's arm. It's a 12 degrees of freedom robotic arm. But the cool part is the user interface. The cable over there, that's an optical fiber. And this student, probably the first time using it, but she can articulate it many different ways. So, for example in Iraq, you know, the war zone, there is roadside bombs. Currently you send this remotely controlled vehicles that are armed. It takes really a lot of time and it's expensive to train the operator to operate this complex arm. In this case it's very intuitive. This student, probably the first time using it, doing very complex manipulation task, picking up objects and doing manipulation, just like that, very intuitive.

Now, this robot is currently our star robot. We actually have a fan club for the robot DARwIn, Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot With Intelligence. As you know we are very interested in humanoid robot, human walking, so we decided to build a small humanoid robot. This was in 2004, at that time this was something really really revolutionary. This was more of a feasibility study, what kind of motors should we use? Is it even possible? What kind of controls should we do? So, this does not have any sensors. So, it's an open loop control. For those of you who probably know, if you don't have any sensors and there is any disturbances, you know what happens. (Laughter)

So, based on that success, the following year we did the proper mechanical design starting from kinematics. And thus, DARwIn I was born in 2005. It stands up. It walks, very impressive. However, still, as you can see, it has a cord, umbilical cord. So, we're still using external power source, and external computation.

So, in 2006, now it's really time to have fun. Let's give it intelligence. We give it all the computing power it needs, 1.5 gigahertz Pentium M chip, two Firewire cameras, eight gyros, accelerometer, four torque sensors on the foot, lithium power batteries. And now DARwIn II is completely autonomous. It is not remote controlled. There is not tethers. It looks around, searches for the ball, looks around, searches for the ball, and it tries to play a game of soccer, autonomously, artificial intelligence. Let's see how it does. This was our very first trial, and... Video: Goal!

So, there is actually a competition called RoboCup. I don't know how many of you heard about RoboCup. It's an international autonomous robot soccer competition. And the goal of RoboCup, the actual goal is, by the year 2050 we want to have full size, autonomous humanoid robots play soccer against the human World Cup champions and win. It's a true actual goal. It's a very ambitious goal, but we truly believe that we can do it.

So, this is last year in China. We were the very first team in the United States that qualified in the humanoid robot competition. This is this year, this was in Austria. You're going to see the action, three against three, completely autonomous. There you go. Yes! The robots track and they play, team play amongst themselves. It's very impressive. It's really a research event packaged in a more exciting competition event. What you see over here, this is the beautiful Louis Vuitton Cup trophy. So, this is for the best humanoid, and we would like to bring this for the very first time to the United States, next year, so wish us luck. Thank you. (Applause)

DARwIn also has a lot of other talents. Last year it actually conducted the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra for the holiday concert. This is the next generation robot, DARwIn IV, but smarter, faster, stronger. And it's trying to show off it's ability. "I'm macho, I'm strong." I can also do some Jackie Chan-motion martial-art movements. (Laughter) And it walks away. So, this is DARwIn IV, again, you'll be able to see it in the lobby. We truly believe this is going to be the very first running, humanoid robot in the United States. So, stay tuned.

Alright, so I showed you some of our exciting robots at work. So, what is the secret of our success? Where do we come up with these ideas? How do we develop these kind of ideas? We have a fully autonomous vehicle that can drive into an urban environment. We won a half a million dollars in DARPA Urban Challenge. We also have the world's very first vehicle that can be driven by the blind. We call it the blind driver challenge, very exciting, and many many other robotics projects I want to talk about. These are just the awards that we won in 2007 fall, from robotics competition and those kind of things.

So, really we have five secrets. First is where do we get inspiration, where do we get this spark of imagination? This is a true story, my personal story. At night when I go to bed, 3 or 4 am in the morning, I lie down, close my eyes, and I see these lines and circles and different shapes floating around, and they assemble, and they form these kind of mechanisms. And then I think, "Ah this is cool." So, right next to my bed I keep a notebook, a journal, with a special pen that has a light on it, LED light, because I don't want to turn on the light and wake up my wife.

So, I see this, scribble everything down, draw things, and I go to bed. Every day in the morning, the first thing I do before my first cup of coffee, before I brush my teeth, I open my notebook. Many times it's empty, sometimes I have something there sometimes it's junk, but most of the time I can't even read my handwriting. And so, 4 am in the morning, what do you expect, right? So, I need to decipher what I wrote. But sometimes I see this ingenious idea in there, and I have this eureka moment. I directly run to my home office, sit at my computer, I type in the ideas, I sketch things out, and I keep a database of ideas. So, when we have these call for proposals I try to find a match between my potential ideas and the problem, if there is a match we write a research proposal, get the research funding in, and that's how we start our research programs.

But just a spark of imagination is not good enough. How do we develop these kind of ideas? At our lab RoMeLa, the Robotics Mechanisms Laboratory, we have this fantastic brainstorming sessions. So, we gather around, and we discuss about problems and social problems and talk about it. But before we start we set this golden rule. The rule is: Nobody criticizes anybody's ideas. Nobody criticizes any opinion. This is important, because many times, students, they fear or they feel uncomfortable how others might think about their opinions and thoughts.

So, once you do this, it is amazing how the students open up. They have these whacky cool crazy brilliant ideas, the whole room is just electrified with creative energy. And this is how we develop our ideas.

Well, we're running out of time, one more thing I want to talk about is you know, just a spark of idea and development is not good enough. There was a great TED moment, I think it was Sir Ken Robinson, was it? He gave a talk about how education and school kills creativity. Well, actually there is two sides to the story. So, there is only so much one can do with just ingenius ideas and creativity and good engineering intuition. If you want to go beyond a tinkering, if you want to go beyond a hobby of robotics and really tackle the grand challenges of robotics through rigorous research we need more than that. This is where school comes in.

Batman, fighting against bad guys, he has this utility belt, he has his grappling hook, has all different kind of gadgets. For us roboticists, engineers and scientists, these tools, these are the courses and classes you take in class. Math, differential equations. I have linear algebra, science, physics, even nowadays, chemistry and biology, as you've seen. These are all the tools that we need. So, the more tools you have, for Batman more effective at fighting the bad guys, for us, more tools to attack these kind of big problems. So, education is very important.

Also, it's not about that, only about that, you also have to work really really hard. So, I always tell my students work smart, then work hard. This picture in the back this is 3 am in the morning. I guarantee if you come to your lab at 3 am, 4 am we have students working there, not because I tell them to, but because we are having too much fun. Which leads to the last topic. Do not forget to have fun. That's really the secret of our success, We're having too much fun. I truly believe that highest productivity comes when you're having fun. And that's what we're doing. There you go. Thank you so much. (Applause)