1. this looks cool, first comment :)

Posted at 3:31PM on Jan 24th 2007 by reid

2. extremly cool idea!
i would never had thought of useing an industrial sized arm tho..

second gen robot wars anyone?

Posted at 3:39PM on Jan 24th 2007 by spiderwebby

3. I've been waiting for someone to do something like this! It's a little slow on the reaction time, but it's something.

Posted at 3:46PM on Jan 24th 2007 by some person

4. I think we killed the server it is on.... Got H A D!

Posted at 4:11PM on Jan 24th 2007 by Unkown

5. this isn't a 1-1 translation of the movement of the remote; they explain the movement delay in their write-up. the computer waits until the remote has completed a movement (you hold down a button while you swing, then release it when you are finished), compares that to a set of stored movements, and replicates the closest stored movement. It's interesting to note the stored movements and the wiimote movements were programmed separately...they decided what moves they wanted it to do (overhand, forehand, parry, etc) then one guy would 'train' his software to recognize how he would move the wiimote to execute that movement, and the other guy programmed the robot to do the movement. they could have used a figure 8 movement on the wiimote to do an overhand smash or a parry if they had wanted to. Cool project. i like their "parts list" (600lb crushed garnets as ballast anyone?)

Posted at 5:20PM on Jan 24th 2007 by mike

6. kinda lame if u ask me, all this amounts to is patern recognition, and a huge industrial robot with preprogramed swings. If they had made the arm imitate the wiimotes actual motions that would've been truely interesting

Posted at 7:33PM on Jan 24th 2007 by wolf

7. I wants a little robot arm...

--neg

Posted at 9:14PM on Jan 24th 2007 by neg

8. I don't see why they couldn't have done the exact wiimote movements- it might take a little extra software, but it would be worth it.

Posted at 9:23PM on Jan 24th 2007 by eric

9. heh one of my friends and I have been talking for a while about projects to do with the accelerometer in the hard drives of the thinkpad and macbooks... this would be pretty cool to do where you control the robot arm by physically moving the laptop. Maybe not very practical but cool anyhow.

Posted at 9:43PM on Jan 24th 2007 by isomk

10. pattern reproduction is pretty common practice in industrial bots. the process of training, coding in a motion, and then linking the two is how all industral bots work, and it is relatively simple and robust software.
To actually make the bot replicate the wiimotes actual motions would be incredibly complex software. To place an end point in space based on wiimote data would involve a lot of complex geometry, if not a bit of calculus. and even if you can get the endpoint of the bot to stop at the related point that the wiimote stops, how it gets there is up for interpretation. compare your own arm to a robotic arm. joints dont work quite the same. for example, the bot's elbow might be pointing up rather than own. like some sort of retard. ;)

Posted at 1:44AM on Jan 25th 2007 by MRE

11. mre:- You are bang on the money. Although most of this boils down to IK algorithms you can still end up with the arm in a crazy unnatural looking position. Getting a robot arm to move naturally is more complex than it initially seems.
My ghetto mini robot arm http://www.headfuzz.co.uk/?q=minirob

Posted at 4:22AM on Jan 25th 2007 by Ginge

12. ginge.. you have been bookmarked.. thanks for the link.. ps, who was the original manufacturer of your arm? does it have any feedback on the axis?

Posted at 8:23AM on Jan 25th 2007 by MRE

13. The original manufacturer is a company in the UK called TecQuipment, but I used very little of the original robot arm. I managed to get a base and some motors out of TQ's skip, but the rest is interpreted from the userguide I found in there also. From what I can tell the orig axis used a potentiometer, which is what I also used. It's undergoing a rebuild at the moment using absolute encoders.

Posted at 11:50AM on Jan 25th 2007 by ginge

14. this would be fun to play tennis against... or for sword training... but it would have a strenght advantage

Posted at 10:23AM on Jan 26th 2007 by TGBM

15. I bet simple movement replication would't be too dauting to impement, the location of the wiimote in 3d space wouldn't bee to hard to calculate based to the accelerations it returned and the direction of gravity (which could also be used to determine handle orientation). as #10 said though, making the arms actual contortion mimic a humans would be far trickier, all I can think of is to attach 3 axis accelerometers to each main segment of the users limb

Posted at 8:42PM on Jan 26th 2007 by wolf

16. Could you put the wiimote in the "hand" of the arm, and create a feedback motion due to the delay? Move it manually---> Moves arm -----> Wiimote moves ---> Moves arm... etc... probably until it extended it's range of motion!

Posted at 2:14PM on Jan 27th 2007 by Ben

17. Isn't there other, more accessable Wii hacks out there? You guys should go find Liquid Ice.

Posted at 3:50PM on Jan 28th 2007 by some person

18. It's needs a remote control industrial robot to go with. to send to your neighbor ( whom you dislike) and scare them into leaving you alone.

Posted at 3:06PM on May 29th 2007 by Anon y mous

19. Why not a wii-mote or potentiometer in the ARM of the arm, then just have it mimic the tilt of the wii-mote you hold?

probably not even possible, but it just popped into my head

Posted at 1:00AM on Dec 4th 2007 by Anon