Juggling robot unveiled by Disney Research
Disney Research has created an animatronic robot that can play catch and juggle balls with a human partner.
The robot relies an external camera system to locate balls and a Kalman ?lter to predict ball destination and timing. Its hand and joint space are calibrated to the vision coordinate system using a least-squares technique, such that the hand can be positioned to the predicted location.
Successful catches are thrown back two and a half metres forward to the participant, and missed catches are detected to trigger suitable animations that indicate failure.
Human to robot partner juggling (three ball cascade pattern, one hand for each partner) is also achieved by speeding up the catching/throwing cycle.
