Woody: Low-Cost, Open-Source Humanoid Torso Robot

Abstract

This paper presents a humanoid torso robot, named Woody. It has two arms, each with five degrees of freedom (DoF) and a 2-DoF neck supporting the head with two moving eyebrows. Woody’s hardware is made primarily from laser-cut plywood. Two cameras, a microphone, a speaker, and a microprocessor board are embedded in the robot. The processor board also contains a wireless communication module for remote control and access to networked or cloudbased resources. The interactive functions include face tracking, facial emotion recognition, and several pre-programmed default gestures. Woody’s graphical user interface (GUI) provides its users with instructions on hardware construction and initial setup. Through this GUI, the user can also program the robot and record new gestures by its motion recording function. Woody is developed as an open-source hardware platform that can also utilize open-source software for educational purposes.