Elsevier

Robotics and Autonomous Systems

Volume 83, September 2016, Pages 150-157
Robotics and Autonomous Systems

T.P.T. a novel Taekwondo personal trainer robot

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2016.05.009Get rights and content

Highlights

  • A novel robotic prototype for sport training is described.

  • The conceptual and functional design of the novel robot is presented.

  • First experimental tests with the platform have been carried out.

  • The internal odometry of the robot has been evaluated.

Abstract

In recent years, robotics has been widely used in the sport sector, but few examples of robotic platforms are currently used in combat sports. This work presents T.P.T., a novel robotic prototype used in the context of Taekwondo, an Olympic martial art sport, able of interacting with children and with adult athletes. In this paper, the conceptual and functional design of the robot, including some preliminary tests aimed at its calibration, is described in details. The robot has been presented at the 2013 Italian Championship of Taekwondo, and it is in a patent pending status (Muscolo and Recchiuto, 2013).

Introduction

The connection between two different research fields, as robotics and sports science, is opening new challenges in research. The main example of this synergy is Robocup, the robotic competition based on a soccer game among robots, in which fast and flexible walking and extremely high perception abilities are fundamental aspects for a good performance  [1]. Robots have been tested also in other sports, for instance ping pong; in this context, many efforts have been dedicated to the learning strategy necessary to predict the ball trajectory  [2].

A context where robots could be of interest is the combat sports field. In fighting sports (e.g. Taekwondo, Boxing, Karate, Muay-Thai…) it is a common practice to fight versus a real opponent (such as an instructor or a sport colleague) or an “artificial” opponent (such as a punching bag) during the training process. The use of an artificial opponent has been introduced in martial arts and swordplay for the entire written history of military training. The punching bag is an element obtained by the composition of different materials with many layers. In general, a classical punching bag is able to absorb impacts from kicks, and punches and it is constituted by a central part (the kernel) with a rigid material, and by an external part with a soft material. The punching bag can be fixed to the ceiling or wall with appropriate supports, it can be fixed with weights to the ground in order to remain perpendicular to the ground, or it can be attached to robust structures.

However, in order to allow the athlete to compete with a real opponent able to move, jump, and kick in an unstructured environment, the punching bag is often not sufficient. Indeed, usually athletes should test different typologies of training, since they have to compete with real opponents, and they have also the need to improve basic characteristics such as velocity, resistance and power. At this aim, the coach (or whoever) can help the athlete, using the hitters, and simulating the movement of the opponent with the hitters in the hand. Finally, at the end of the training, the athlete should test his training with another training partner that will combat against him simulating the real opponent.

Robotics can surely be used in this context, with mobile robotic artifacts which can interact in some ways with the athletes, using lights and sound, measuring the performances, and being used by the coach as artificial trainers for athletes  [3], [4]. First attempts to design a robot inspired by Taekwondo athletes have been proposed in  [5], while Lee et al. presented an application of mobile inverted pendulum systems to design robots for boxing games  [6]. Other examples of robots interacting in combat sports have been proposed for boxing and fencing  [7], [8], [9], [10]. In particular Lee and Yu  [9] presented a robot for striking during fencing practice, able to freely move by setting up rotational movement speed and allowing front/rear and right/left directions, generating the desired sound and light when applying the strike to target positions. This robot can be moved on a planar surface and can interact with opponent only moving the stick colligated with the arms. Trawick Luther  [10] patented an electromechanical sparring partner that simulates the movement and the appearance of a human opponent. This robot is designed as a training device for Boxing and Kickboxing, but the interaction with the athlete is limited to the motion of the arms and the trunk. The same concept is applied to other robots interacting with opponents  [11], [12], [13], [14].

Based on all these premises, this paper presents a novel robot for taekwondo practice with children, the Taekwondo Personal Trainer (T.P.T.), with the capability to absorb kicks and punches of child athletes while moving in all directions, controlled by a joystick. It is endowed with LEDs, acoustic speakers and tactile sensors, in order to count the number of kicks and punches received. With respect of the previous works, this robot is specifically designed for taekwondo athletes.

The paper is structured as follows: it will start from the analysis of the needs of Taekwondo athletes in Section  2 while Section  3 will describe the design and development of the novel robot. Section  4 will show some preliminary tests performed with the TPT robot, aimed at its calibration. The paper will end with conclusions and future works.

Section snippets

Taekwondo and robotics: current technology and market needs

The World Taekwondo Federation (WTF)  [15], [16] (Fig. 1) was founded in 1973. Taekwondo is one of the two Asian martial arts included in the Olympics. It made its debut as a demonstration Olympic sport at the 1988 Seoul Games, and became an official medal sport at the 2000 Sydney Games. The sport is practiced in 188 countries and there were over seven million individuals with black belts in the world as of the end of 2008. Current events at the Olympics include four weight classes each for men

T.P.T. robot: details of the platform

Given the requested characteristics, the technical problem solved by the novel robotic platform was the realization of a mobile robot able to move on a flat surface controlled by PC, or by a joystick, while speaking, giving acoustic and visual inputs, absorbing and detecting kicks and punches.

The first digital mock-up of the low cost robot is shown in Fig. 2(a); it is addressed to children, but with small modifications it can be used also by professional athletes, training and monitoring their

T.P.T. robot: physical prototype

Fig. 6 shows the drivers, the motors and the first realized prototype. First tests using the robot have been performed in October 2013, while the first presentation has been performed during the Taekwondo Italian championship on Arezzo (Tuscany, Italy), 13th–15th December 2013.

Experimental tests: setup

First tests in a controlled environment were conducted using a camera as localization system and measuring the encoder response.

Regarding the motor’s encoders, the MicroEncoder SE22 were used, with a resolution of 100 CPR

Conclusions

This paper presented the first prototype of the T.P.T. robot with its conceptual and functional design. The novel robotic platform can be integrated in the context of combat sports (e.g. Taekwondo) training and it is currently being patented  [28] by the company owner of the robot  [29]. All the steps necessary for the realization of the platform are here described. Moreover, some preliminary tests aimed at its calibration are presented, giving good indications for future developments of the

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Humanot Company under Grant POR CREO FESR 2007–2013. Special thanks to the Polisportiva Città dei Ragazzi (Genova—Italy) for helping the authors during the preliminary tests on the robot and to Prof. Rezia Molfino for her assistance and for giving the possibility to use the PMAR laboratory (University of Genova—Italy) for the testing activities.

Dr. Giovanni Gerardo Muscolo received his Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pisa in 2008. From 2009 to 2012 he was a Research Fellow at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, where he was involved in the projects NanoBioTact, RobotCub and RoboSoM. Here in 2011, together with Dr. Carmine Tommaso Recchiuto, he created Humanot S.r.l., a start-up company and spin-off of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, aimed at the development of humanoid and animaloid robots. From 2013 to 2015

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  • Dr. Giovanni Gerardo Muscolo received his Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pisa in 2008. From 2009 to 2012 he was a Research Fellow at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, where he was involved in the projects NanoBioTact, RobotCub and RoboSoM. Here in 2011, together with Dr. Carmine Tommaso Recchiuto, he created Humanot S.r.l., a start-up company and spin-off of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, aimed at the development of humanoid and animaloid robots. From 2013 to 2015 he was involved in the project BrainHuro, which focused on the realization of a brain-controlled humanoid robot. From 2013 to 2015 he was a Research Fellow at the University of Genova. He obtained the Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics and Machine Design in 2014 from the University of Genova. Since October 2015 he collaborates with the Institute of Communication Information and Perception Technologies (TECIP) of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna.

    His main interests are in the fields of humanoids, tactile sensors and mobile robotics in general.

    Dr. Carmine Tommaso Recchiuto received his Master Degree in Electronic Engineer from the University of Pisa in 2008. From 2009 to 2012 he was Research Fellow at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, where he was involved in projects related to the realization of tactile sensors and humanoid robotics. Here in 2011, together with Dr. Giovanni Gerardo Muscolo, he created Humanot S.r.l., a start-up company and spin-off of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, aimed at the development of humanoid and animaloid robots. From 2013 to 2015 was involved in the project BrainHuro, which focused on the realization of a brain-controlled humanoid robot. From 2014 he was also Research Fellow at the University of Genova. He obtained the Ph.D. in Microsystems in 2015.

    His main interests are in the fields of humanoids, UAVs and mobile robotics in general.

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