Grandmasters soon to be replaced by robots? ;)

[Bob Hubbard]

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/90204-lightsaber-kinect-robotic-arm-jedibot

By combining a dexterous robotic arm, the movement tracking capabilities of Microsoft’s Kinect sensor, and some clever software, students at Stanford University have created what can only be called a JediBot. The arm is equipped with a bright red foam-dampened lightsaber, but for all intents and purposes it is trained to kill the opponent: a student with a green lightsaber (shouldn’t it be blue?)


Basically, the robot arm is pre-programmed with a bunch of “attack moves” and it defends by using the Kinect to track the green lightsaber. To attack, JediBot performs a random attack move, and if it meets resistance — another lightsaber, a skull, some ribs — it recoils and performs another, seemingly random, attack. It can attack once every two to three seconds — so it isn’t exactly punishing, but presumably it would only require a little knob-tweaking to make it a truly killer robot.

Check out the videos. I'm seeing a future training system for stick and sword and maybe even knife fighting.

 

[RandomPhantom700]

"He's more machine now, then man...twisted and evil."

 

[Xue Sheng]

It's only the beginning.... next :uhyeah:

 

[granfire]

Uber Nerdism ^_^

 

[Ken Morgan]

Shakes head......walks away.....

 

[Bob Hubbard]

What is a kata? A predetermined series of moves. An imaginary fight where you move, counter, attack, block etc against an imaginary opponent, or a real one. A dance, if you will.

What do students hear? Constant tweaks and pushes to meet an instructors idea of perfection of these moves.

But what instructor is constantly consistent in their execution of a movement? I have yet to see -anyone- be spot on 100% of the time. There are always variations.

A robot, could take and execute the same movement exactly, constantly.

As a training tool, when working towards perfection, this could be good.

It will be a long time though, before a machine can innovate on the fly like a person can, and guide a student towards the corrections needed to reach their own perfection.

 

[Ken Morgan]

The robot isn’t programmed to hit an open target, it’s programmed to strike this way, then this way, then this way….and once it meets resistance, it pulls back and strikes again. It kinda reminds me of some of the industrial robots I’ve seen in action. Weld, move, weld, rotate, move weld…..

In a sword fight you have three areas you can be in, outside his range, in range or inside his range, depending on where you are will determine what you do. Personally outside and inside are my favourite places to be.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Right. So for pattern drills, it looks promising, but for free flow sparring, not so much. Though I have seen some do a nice job on ping pong balls in the past.

 

[RandomPhantom700]

In all seriousness, it's a really neat tool that has potential applications in martial arts training. It is not, however, a teacher, and I dont think that any automaton of any sort is ever going to replace a human as one. Arcade shooting games may teach me how to shoot decently (at least until it's time to reload); they'll never teach me how to be a cop.

Still, limited as it is, kudos to the engineering team for putting it together.

 

[David43515]

A robot, could take and execute the same movement exactly, constantly.

As a training tool, when working towards perfection, this could be good.

It will be a long time though, before a machine can innovate on the fly like a person can, and guide a student towards the corrections needed to reach their own perfection.

All depends on your idea of perfection. Many weight lifters love using machine weights that lock the path of movement into a single constantly repeated arc. Others (myself included) dislike them for the same reason. They think that free weights that allow you to adjust the motion each and every time are the way to train. The same with learning to actually use your art vs just demonstrating it via a kata. (I love kata as a training tool, but not as a performance). No two opponants will ever attack in exactly the same way. Training to understand the principles that make the technique work, while experiencing slight variations, is the key to progress. Or I could be full o` beans, YMMV.

 

[Xue Sheng]

As a training tool, when working towards perfection, this could be good.

Or it could lock you into a dangerous pattern based on unchanging and repetitive training and when a human attacker did not hit exactly the same way with the same exact force or same exact angle you could be unable to do respond since your expectations of force, velocity and angle of attack have been derailed.

 

[stone_dragone]

Good idea or bad idea...I WANT ONE!