众所周知,人类有五种感觉:视觉、听觉、触觉、嗅觉、味觉。这是已发现的主要感觉,人体还有更多的感觉,包括许多我们通常不当一回事的感觉。这些更基本的人类感觉常被称为“第六感”——用于描述和通常五种不同的一类感觉。“第六感”中最重要的一种是平衡感。平衡感是由遍布全身包括耳朵内部的复杂神经网形成的,它帮助人类竖直站立,感知何时会跌倒。当我们失去平衡时,身体会自然地试图重建平衡。平衡感是人用两腿行走的基本先决条件之一。平衡感结合了身体的角度和动作信息。至少一部分平衡感源于重力作用—地球施与我们身体的力量。重力是非常强大的物理力量,但是业余机器人技术不常用它,因为测量它的精密传感器极贵。设想机器人有感知重力的能力可能带来的好处。帮助我们竖直站立的同种重力可能为两条腿的机器人提供使之保持直立的能力。或者使滚动机器人(依靠轮子或履带)能够通过断判角度是否太陡来避免翻倒和损坏一些东西。重力感可使机器人避免穿行某些地形,或者可能命令机器人移动一些内部配置重量(假设它是这样平衡的)以改变其平衡中心。本讲我们将探讨简单的和复杂一些的赋予机器人以平衡感的各种方法,使之可判断其在地面上的行动和其物理方位。 It is well known that humans have five senses: vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste. This is the main feeling that has been found, the body has more sense, including many of the feelings we usually do not care about. These more basic human senses are often called “sixth sense” - used to describe and usually five different kinds of feelings. “Sixth sense ” the most important one is a sense of balance. Balance is formed by a complex network of nerves throughout the body, including the inside of the ears, which helps to stand upright and sense when it falls. When we lose balance, the body naturally tries to rebuild balance. Balance is one of the basic prerequisites for walking with both legs. Balance combines body angle and motion information. At least part of the balance comes from gravity - the power the Earth exerts on our bodies. Gravity is a very powerful physical force, but amateur robotics do not often use it because the precision sensors that measure it are extremely expensive. Imagine the possible benefits that robots have in their ability to sense gravity. The same kind of gravitation that helps us to stand upright may provide a two-legged robot with the ability to keep it upright. Or to allow the rolling robot (by wheel or track) to avoid tipping over and damaging something by judging whether the angle of judgment is too steep. The sense of gravity allows the robot to avoid traveling through certain terrains, or it may order the robot to move some internal configuration weight (assuming it is so balanced) to change its center of balance. In this talk we will explore simple and complex ways to give robots a sense of balance so that they can judge their actions on the ground and their physical bearings.