CP01

General Overview

CP01 is the first robot developed according to the TORP Specification Set and is also the first high size robot developed and built in Brazil. CP01 is a semi-humanoid robot of the approximate size of a human being. It has 16 DOF (Degrees of Freedom), that is, there are 16 moving parts in its body. Its superior part is composed by head, neck, chest, arms and hands. We did not propose at this time a legged structure to CP01 (this will remain as a challenge to the next CP family robots, that can propose new modules to be added to this robot). On the robot base we proposed a support structure strong enough to assure robot moving. CP01 is a friendly robot, able to demonstrate emotions through his eyes, gestures and colors. He is also able to sense world and people through many types of sensors, including camera.

History: How was it developed?

The robot was idealized by the TORP Steering Committee in 2008, particularly: Alexandre da Silva Simões, Esther Luna Colombini, Marcelo Nicoletti Franchin and Jackson Paul Matsuura. The task of transform these initial ideas to a digital creature with a modern design was assigned to the virtual character animator Rodrigo de Angelis, who worked on the first paper drafts of the robot. The robot concept evolved and a first digital version of the robot - a CAD (Computer Aided Design) drawing - was proposed. At this time, Ronaldo Carrion joined the group, allowing the robot mechanical project to evolve with time. Daniel Lélis Baggio also joined the group developing the vision system for the robot. The development team was accomplished with 6 extraordinary students of the Control and Automation Engineering course at UNESP: Victor Tacla Nalin, Rafael Ribeiro da Silva, Kauê Cruz Silva, Alan Esteves de Morgensztern, Rafael Toschi Chiafarelli and Guilherme Moreira de Andrade. This group was responsible to the first robot version full development: material selection, mechanical parts design, integrated circuits selection, electrical boards projects, sensors and actuators selection, processor selection, milling of the first parts, mechanical assembly, processors programming, network configuration, electrical tests, assembly tests and so on. The materialization of CP01 was only possible due to a singular partnership between this group of researchers and the E3 Futura company, the international promoter of the Campus Party that has partially sponsored the required material. Some special technical partnership were established with some companies with high expertise in some areas related to the project. RIMA donated a special magnesium league proper to manufacture the robot chassis. Micropress gently manufactured all TORP boards specially designed to CP01. Art3D gently agreed to manufacture external plastic parts of the robot. After these partnerships, the robotic creature was finally ready to born. CP01 was designed to be fully assembled and programmed inside of Campus Party Brazil 2009.

What will be the future of CP01?

After Campus Party Brazil 2009, CP01 will travel Brazil and the world helping to promote robotics. Particularly, in Brazil it will help to promote robotics events of Brazilian Computing Society (Sociedade Brasileira de Computação - SBC), Brazilian Automation Society (Sociedade Brasileira de Automática - SBA) as well as research and educational projects of Brazilian universities. Around the world, CP01 will travel helping to promote the Campus Party in many countries (Spain, Colombia, El Salvador, and so on). When resting of his so exhausting traveling routine, CP01 will remain at UNESP for research and development purposes. We expect that after some years of development - with the development of new modules - the updated versions of CP01 (CP02, CP03...) can help us to learn how to develop better robots for human needs.

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