Videos.

Demonstration of the force-feedback and virtual spring control of Cog's torso.

Demonstration of the Series-Elastic-Actuator hand performing feed-forward grasps.

A detail of the hand's Series Elastic Actuator [the torsion spring in the foreground].

Cog's 2 DOF hand has three articulated members, each of which has three coupled links. The finger and thumb are mechanically linked and close to a pincer grasp. The wider mit independentally curls to the palm.

Machined torsion springs between the motor and each finger use strain-gauges to provide force feedback.

The hand was printed by SLA and later retrofitted with FSR tactile sensors.

Cog, now on a national tour of science museums, is the first humanoid developed in the Humanoid Robotics Group.

I developed a 2 DOF Series Elastic Actuator hand for Cog and outfitted the torso to be force controlled.

My master's thesis on Cog learned a set of arm pose primitives from training data. These were then used to compose novel arm motions during social imitation interactions. Sadly, no video remains of this work. In it, a person would wave their arms in front of Cog and Cog would imitate the movement. The visual perception for this work was developed by Brian Scassellati.

Cog is no longer an active project.