The 1st Hobby Robot To Ride A Bicycle

Now here’s an impressive display, and almost certainly a world first, courtesy of one Dr. Guero (a researcher who has worked at AIST, Boston Dynamics, and Osaka University). For a fun project he programmed his hobby-level KHR-3HV bipedal robot to ride a custom-made bicycle built to scale. Recently Panasonic’s EVOLTA robot completed an Iron Man triathlon, a portion of which involved cycling, but its bicycle had training wheels to keep it upright. And Murata Manufacturing’s Murata Boy relies on a large spinning disc in its chest to maintain balance (and can do so even when it is completely still).

Dr. Guero’s robot rides the bike pretty much the same way a person would, reaching speeds in the range of 10kph. The robot automatically adjusts its direction to maintain balance thanks to its internal gyroscope, but he can also control it manually with a remote control. The bicycle is not equipped with brakes, so in order to stop it has to put its feet down, but it can start back up again just as easily. You may notice that the robot has wires coming out on either side near the seat; according to Dr. Guero these are piano wires that he attached to provide some shock absorption should the robot fall over.

sources: http://www.plasticpals.com