RoMela's THOR and THOR-OP for the DARPA DRC Challange

Out of all of the robots talked about yesterday during the DARPA DRC presentations, the THOR-OP was the most interesting to me!

Dr. Hong's proposal starts at the 54:16 minute mark of the video below.



It is hard to hear what Dr. Hong is saying in this video but here are some of the key points. THOR-OP going to be a open hardware and software robot and it will use the new Dynamixel Pro servos.

It has the same upper body as THOR but the servos in THOR's lower body will be of a new design. Again it is hard to heard Dr. Hong's explanation of the new servo design. Something about springs or elastic bands? Sounds like a development of the PLM leg design in CHARLI and the PLM leg designs used by many of the top competitors in the Robo-one competition in Japan.

I like the THOR-OP idea for two reasons. It is open hardware and software. Which I am a huge supporter of because I feel that is the best way to promote innovation, creativity and thinking out of the box. The other reason is that many people like me will have a chance to work with the robot unlike the THOR and the other robots talked about yesterday.

Link to more information about the DARPA DRC challenge.