Students put this “JediBot” together from an articulating* arm and a Kinect* (and of course a little robotics know-how).

    Designed for a Stanford class project in just under a month, the “JediBot” is a pre-fabricated, bright orange robotic arm that has been programed to attack students with a red foam lightsaber*.

    The Kinect tracks the location of both lightsabers and has the robot make an attack or defending move based on their positions.

    The robotic arm can choose to attack while the student under attack defends with a green lightsaber. The arm has been set to only attack every two or three seconds, so the speed of attacks can easily be blocked. However, it’s likely that the speed can be increased as the defensive positioning occurs in real time based on the movements of the student.

    When the arm is put into defensive mode, the Microsoft Kinect starts watching the green lightsaber. The robotic arm reacts to the position of the green saber and moves to counter* attacks. As long as the student stays in the Kinect line-of-sight, the arm moves very fast and manages to block most attacks.

    The color sensor in the Kinect recognizes the color of the student’s lightsaber and is able to track the position of the swinging* foam saber.

    Beyond the lightsaber-swinging robot, another group built a robot to flip* burgers on a hot grill*. The robotic arm uses a sensor to understand when the spatula* is touching the meat patty. Groups also taught robotic arms how to play golf, draw time-lapse LED artwork and take photos.

    Students demonstrated* the different robotic projects as part of the final day of class in an Experimental Robotics course at Stanford.

    Microsoft announced a partnership with LucasArts at E3 2011 in designing a Kinect-controlled “Star Wars” title focusing on lightsaber battles.

    Perhaps the developer should hire these Stanford students to help out.

    (SD-Agencies)