Modern robotics hits Hollywood. IRIS: The most advanced camera rig ever created. | Hacker News Reader

Modern robotics hits Hollywood. IRIS: The most advanced camera rig ever created.

alexandrosmaragos.com

54 pointsMatBailey43 comments

This, mixed with drones with cameras like the ones used here: http://vimeo.com/36341233 makes some pretty exciting cinematography possible

thanks for the link, looks great! If you want a video of the drone itself take a look in here - http://www.omstudios.de/OMCOPTER-Flying-Epic

Looks impressive

There are also some nice, human-controlled (although I believe they can be automated using stuff from DIY Drones) open-source units from Quadrocopter: http://www.quadrocopter.us/

Thanks so much for this link. I had no idea this was even possible.

Nice. You can see the wash from the propeller(s) at 1:33 among other places. The choice of concrete surfaces was smart.

A couple of days ago on reddit this was posted: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKC6j7pW6T0

It's kind of similar and really interesting. The precision, speed and strength of this robots always amazed me.

That video is incredibly cool. Thanks for sharing.

This kind of reminds me of the Danish Christmas calendar (a TV-show with an episode for each day in December until the 24th). In this show all characters were played by the same actor, Anders Matthesen[1], a Danish stand-up comedian, actor and rapper. The show was named "Jul på Vesterbro" and in many of the shots characters sit side-by-side and interact. Along with this, there were camera movements and minor visual and sound effects. To do this, the camera was mounted on a robotic arm which could move in the precisely same way. For each scene and for each character, Matthesen would do the acting and then in the editing room they would cut the performances together.

I can't really find any sources on it, I only remember a Danish documentary about the creation of the show.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Matthesen

Here some action: http://www.botndolly.com/media#/medium/15

I think it's very scary standing next to a moving robot that close. It doesn't stop when you get in the way. Hope someone is holding a emergency stop button.

If you've got the right sensors, any unexpected resistance could be used as a trigger to stop motion faster than any human could do it.

The SawStop system does it with electrical conductivity, but feedback from servos will do as well.

They have envelope protection, in software, so if you tell the controls the size and shape of the camera and the surrounding objects they wont drive the camera through the floor whatever path you program in.

But they don't have proximity sensors - like the saw capacitance sensor. It just doesn't work in the real world with large objects and longer distances.

You have to rely on the actors staying on their marks if you want to do a very close approach.

This still imparts quite a bit of force to someone, potentially killing them.

I don't think the feedback of the servos will detect a human body part. These servos are very very strong. Maybe when it hit the concrete it will skip a step noticeable in the feedback but that's about it.

This is a 1 ton robotic arm. It won't notice a bit when it hits somebody

Yes, this thing looks dangerous. I cannot identify any security measurements except that guy in the background who probably has an emergency stop button.

http://vimeo.com/43455552

This is stunning. I've so much respect for people so young drawing so much know-how and expertise together into one team. Brilliant video

I think one of the comments on that video sums it up nicely:

"I'm pretty sure this is the closest my eyes have come to having sex. That. was. AMAZING!"

I wrote a few comments earlier about this device, but I thought I'd try and sum up my thoughts on it in one post.

This is terribly dangerous. Thus far, they've been lucky - nobody has done something wrong or stupid. That said, it cannot last. Putting industrial robots like this on a moving track, and then putting them close to humans at high speed is a recipe for disaster. This system has a 6 meter by track length operating envelope and moves over 4 meters per second. It also has control over 110kg of material - putting its weight in the 2000kg range (minus the track).

There are safety systems available, but none that are commercialized that will allow humans and robots like this to exist in incredibly close proximity with any expectation of safety. Some of the recent research we completed at Carnegie Mellon points to a future where this is possible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_Xc4yq-rz0

But we're not there yet.

See my prior post. This is nothing new. Systems like this have been used in the motion picture industry for decades. As far as I know the safety record is perfect. They take that stuff very seriously.

Except the examples you gave are both NOT what they're proposing here. You had robots well away from humans with hardware systems preventing them from impacting human space. The first example didn't even involve humans.

This system is meant to be used up close and "in the action".

That is not true at all. Milo and its little brethren have been used for many years, in place and with the actors. In case you missed the notes about it, these systems come with detection, fail-safes, and kill switches to prevent issues. And -always- have a human operator in final control of them.

See, for example: http://www.mrmoco.com/images/rigs/talos/img5-fullsize.jpg

That system doesn't appear to be able to even reach the actor.

What detection? What fail-safes?

This new system is built to be handled totally remotely. The time it takes a human to respond results in dead people.

I just gave two use cases and you chose to generalize from there. MOCO rigs have been used in just about every application you could possibly imagine. I once worked on a system that got dropped of a cliff on cables, next to a stunt guy, all computer controlled.

I saw a similar safety-system at Hanover industrial fair a few months ago. So they are already being sold.

I'd love to see it! Can you send me some details via email (in my profile)?

Thanks!

Sadly I dont remember the details anymore. I can just remember that the system was by a german company and judging by how it behaved was still in a kind of beta-stadium.

I know it's a little off-topic. But that camera looks a lot like GLaDOS from Portal, looking right at me.

That's because both are descended from a common ancestor. GLaDOS is designed to look like contemporary robots, and IRIS is clearly very much based on existing robot designs used in manufacturing, like this one: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Automatio...

Animators have used motion control rigs for decades, they had the same range of motion but were optimized for extremely slow but the incredibly accurate registration required for repeated animation shots. The lightness of contemporary cameras also is a significant advantage.

Reminds me of Garbage's "Breaking Up The Girl": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFHmn22PkKU

and how it enjoys making the camera rig an active participant in the video.

This is a huge Kuka robot. While Kukas have a good position-precision they are not the best in motion-precision. However this is used for motion/action/movie recording. Unless Kuka improved the servoes and gears, I doubt it will produce much usable material. My friend tried it with Kukas first and ended up using Stäublis with modified gears. http://www.rtleaders.com/de/broadcasting-automation/robokam-...

Nevertheless safety is still an issue. In this regard "hits Hollywood" nails it.

Did anyone check out the Kungfu demo? Is that Keanu Reeves?

Looks like he's gone full-on sad Keanu. Which is too bad, I'd be a lot happier if I had one of those cameras. That thing has some really incredible reach. I wonder how it's controlled and how they make sure it doesn't collide with the actors?

They likely don't make sure it doesn't collide with anyone. There MAY be some local safety systems in place, like virtual light curtains and exclusion zones...

If you're filming a kung foo scene, you're already very careful to not collide with who you're "fighting". I don't see how this would be any different other than the robot is perfect and your opposing actor is not.

Your opposing human actor is not 2000kg and moving at 4+ m/s...

"Hollywood, meet Detroit." <-- I'm pretty sure that doesn't have the implication in my mind you wanted it to have. :)

It's an interesting competitor for Mark Robert's Milo. Smaller slider/dolly and pan/tilt companies come out of the woodworks right now and are very popular accesories, there're even a couple of small open-source shops in the industry. Obviously none on that scale though. (Dynamic Perception, eMotimo, etc.)

Damn this thing is dangerous. It should never be within its most extended position away from people.

After replacing the camera operators, they will need to replace the actors with robots too, because those darn humans aren't repeatable enough.

This is nothing new. Special effects companies have been using MOCO rigs (Motion Control) for decades.

I worked on some of this hardware many moons ago. One such rig was a cartesian robot the size of an entire warehouse. It was used to fly a camera over (and through) a miniature mockup of a city. The rig had XYZ axis that were measured in tens of feet and the end-effector (where the camera was mounted) had various rotation and translation capabilities as well as computer control of focus and other camera functions.

I was also on set for some software tests of a rig used on an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. It was impressive to see this rig programmatically approach the actor at high speed on a rail system while the camera was going through various programmed motions. The thing was easily over 500lbs. They had massive stop blocks at the end of the track prevent a run-away condition and protect the actors.

Agreed, one trip around NAB will show you a lifetime's worth of imagining on cinematic robots. I think the interesting thing they've done here is tie everything in together with a single point control that's perhaps nicer than Flair. Of course, it's also competing with an endless array of multi-million dollar systems - so I'm not sure how exactly this one stands above the fray, except maybe getting written up in HN =)

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