About I-Cybie
I-Cybie is wondefull robot toy. It has 16bit CPU, 8K RAM, 256+256K ROM, 16 motors, a lot of sensors, voice recognition chip and other features. A lot of people say that it is a younger brother of a famous Aibo.
This toy was originaly developed by SilverlIt toys in 2001. Unfortunately, due to bad marketing it did not have commecial success. I-Cybies are not produced now, but anyway still can be bought.
Some time after I-Cybie release, ICybiePet reverce-engeneered this toy, and a Super I-Cubie and SDK have appeared.
At present time SDK is at 2.0 version and does include all functions needed for experiments with this low-cost robotic platform.
Stage 1. My SIC upgrade
Using descriptions from Aibohack site, I sucessfully did
Super I-Cybie upgrade. It was really hard - I had a rev D board with extremely small pins.As a result, I have small robot which can be programmed with a
C language.
Click for large picture
Goals
What I want to achieve as a result of I-Cybie programming is fully autonomous robot with smooth animation, intelligent house navigation and immediate feedback interactivity.
Standart ROM lack all this features and present only basic behaviour, which became boring after a very short time.
Whether I will be able to achieve this is still not clear. Robotix is new for me, and lack of sensors and bad servo accuracy can became an unsolvable problem.
Stage 2. 3D model for experiments
I did a 3D model of I-Cybie for my experiments. It is available in Download section (3ds MAX 5.1 format).
Model has IK and custom attributes setup ready for animation (use custom attributes of "body" object to controll head, neck and tail).
As a side effect, I spent some time creating I-Cybie wallpapers and have done several variants of them. They all are available in Download section too.
Stage 3. Try to create new animation
* current stage
19/10/2004 I have got first results in downloading animation from 3DS MAX to robot, but more precise PID algorithm requires more research time. Since now I dedicate all my free time to ReadManiac, this projects is suspended.
What I do not like in animation from original ROM is its sequental structure. Sometimes dog moves only single leg from one position to another, while it could do a lot of movements simulaneously to produce much more smooth and realistic animation.
The problem with robot animation is that it is different from games. In 3DS Max you can position body as you want, even in the air, but this obvious will not work when you download animation to the real robot.
Another problem is that limb positioning is extremely not precise. This can cause a lot of problems.
The idea is to create animation player with physical simulation engine to test new animation without downloading it to the real robot.
At present time I'm trying to create animation player in a few moments of my free time.
Download
3DS Max model of I-Cybie here
(accidentally put old model without IK setup on site till 04.06.2004, now all Ok)
Links
www.aibohack.com - Super I-Cubie mod, SDK
www.imaginerobots.com - dissection, other info
Copyright (C) 2004 by Roman Lut
