Author: Yu Hang He, Email: hey6@unlv.nevada.edu
Date Last Modified: 07/16/2018

This week, members of the Hubo Lab performed a full scale demonstration using many humanoid robots that are available in the lab. The lab members showed Hubo 2 imitate a human motion using mobile controller. They showed how the controllers are used to accurately control FX-2's hand motion.

They demonstrated DRC-Hubo driving a vehicle, walking across uneven terrain and climbing stairs. It is incredible to witness first hand the DRC-Hubo that won the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge perform some of the tasks during the competition. The other demonstrations are just as insightful and incredible. The demonstrations reminded me that Hubo Lab is one of the leading laboratory in the field of humanoid robotics. I am grateful for this opportunity more than ever.

This week, our Lab Manager, Dongbin, visited Leonard and me at KAIST. Dongbin introduced us to one of his underclassmen, who is currently working at Aerospace Engineering Lab at KAIST. He is currently working with the design of missiles. Dongbin and him shared many of their old story and memories with us.

This week, I learned more about the hierarchy in the Korean social system and the resulting difference between Korean and US customs surprised me. Anyone visiting Korea should understand the importance of social hierarchy. Age is one of the most important factor in determining this hierarchy. Basically, younger individuals should always show respect towards their seniors. That is extremely important in workplace. If someone does not greet their seniors properly, it would earn him an unfavorable reputation in the workplace. Following this hierarchy, table manners and customs are also very important. Thankfully, foreigners are excluded from this hierarchy, nevertheless, it is still important to consider this hierarchy so as not to accidentally offend others.

I learned that one of the biggest obstacle for my research process is my own stubbornness and inability to ask for help. One of the motto that I tried to guide myself is “work smarter not harder.” However, I found myself often struggling with a problem and refuse to ask others for help. My mindset becomes entrapped inside a loop that keeps repeating “I can do it” to myself. More often than not, I will later find out that the problem I am struggling with have a known solution and there are others who could have helped me. I hope I can change this bad habit of mine.

Inverse kinematic is one of the most crucial part of this project. This week, I learned how to use the inverse kinematic(IK) function for Hubo 2 and created a PODO AL program to test the IK function. I used Choreonoid simulator to test the program.

After learning how to use inverse kinematics, I transferred my functions that was originally written in Matlab into the C++ PODO AL program that I created for this project.

Another problem that I encountered during the project is the orientation of wrist. During the initial motion capture, I did not take the orientation of wrist into consideration. However, in order for the IK function to work properly, orientation of wrist is a crucial input parameter. In the end, I have to transformed the orientation captured during mocap into an orientation that can be used with IK function.