Leap from the University of Tokyo to the world, autonomous flight robot "Phenox" launches Kickstarter project

The evolution of a flying robot called Drone (drone) is remarkable,Delivering goods,I play musical instrumentsAnd various machines are being developed. Among such worldwide drone boom, young researchers at the University of Tokyo are the first on-board type small flying robot in the world that can autonomously fly by judging the surrounding situation "Phenox (phenox)I succeeded in developing the project at the cloud funding site Kickstarter and heard that I could not stay even if I could stay, I decided to visit the University of Tokyo and show Phenox.

Phenox Lab | Fly Your Creativity with Phenox!
http://phenoxlab.com/


Arrived at the University of Tokyo Hongo campus.


A certain room of intellectual engineering laboratory, Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Tokyo, is the birthplace of Phenox.


It seems that day and night, research and improvement are being carried out by hand.


You can see what kind of flying robot Phenox is in the following movie.

Phenox PV - YouTube


When I say "Phenox (Fenox)" ......


Phenox took off from the palm. Phenox is able to recognize speech.


Ringing a whistle ......


Succeeded landing on the palm heliport.


Phenox is equipped with the Intelligent Self-Control System (ISCS) which can fly while detecting circumstances and obstacles.


Analyze the image in real time while shooting with the camera, judging the surrounding situation.


It is also possible to recognize movement of hands.


Phenox flying from hand to hand ... ...


Like a relay ......


You can hand it with a gesture.


◆Developer introduction
This time, he responded to the interview by Mr. Komamura of Chief Engineer of Phenox Lab (Fenox Lab). I am enrolled in the doctoral course of the Department of Aeronautics and Space Engineering (Intelligence Engineering Laboratory) of the Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo.


Interaction designer / engineer Mr. Ken Sugi. I am also enrolled in the master's program of the Department of Aerospace Engineering (Intelligence Engineering Laboratory) of the University of Tokyo graduate school of engineering.


◆Appearance check of Phenox
At the moment, I was asked to show the fourth generation prototype of Phenox which is still developing day and night. Compared with iPhone 5s, it looks like this. Phenox is a miniature flying robot with a palm size of about 12 cm diagonal of the motor.


This prototype is in the process of setting the setting of the "range sensor" which is the protrusion at the center of the picture. The range sensor measures the distance to the ground and recognizes how high is being flying.


SoC · Zynq where the square chip visible under the range sensor is Phenox's "brain".


The frame of the cross is apparently made of metal, but made of resin for weight reduction. It is handmade output by 3D printer. Phenox weighs only 65 g.


Propeller and motor.


The lead from the motor is soldered manually.


Lithium ion battery.


The camera in the horizontal direction is to observe the surrounding situation, to accurately estimate its own position by recognizing the feature point.


LED and power switch that act as an indicator lamp.


Connectors were bought from Akihabara by bicycle from the campus and procured.


The range sensor on the back side measures the position with the ground.


Another camera aimed at the ground recognizes and judges colors.


Phenox's "foot". Because the experiment is repeated, the underlying parts color is revealed.


We will also solder the Bluetooth chip manually.


◆Test flight
Phenox being improved, but as a simple demonstration I had you try out the flight action "Recognize and follow people".


Autonomous flying robot that recognizes and follows people "Phenox" - YouTube


Phenox in the above movie recognizes and follows people like this.


◆interview
I asked two people who formed Phenox Lab (Phenox Lab) to develop Phenox about various aspects such as Phenox and research vision.


◆What is Phenox?

GIGAZINE (hereinafter, G):
We developed a palm-sized flying robot called Phenox (Fenox)KickstarterI heard that the project will be done. First of all, please tell me briefly about Phenox.

Komoda territory (hereinafter, Komura):
Phenox is a quad-cotter equipped with "autonomous control function" that can fly without being controlled from the outside. In general, flying robot called Drone (Drone) is flying by an external operation by a controller, but Phenox is a machine that can grasp the surrounding environment by himself and fly accordingly.

G:
Is that the flying robot thinking with the brain?

Kimura:
That's right. A general flying robot is not complete by itself, but, to be precise, the flight robot itself and the controller are functioning as a set.AR DroneThere is a "brain" part called a ground machine separately from the main body such as the iPhone and the flight Robo, and it fly according to the directive. Phenox is unnecessary for the ground plane, I think that it is easy to understand if you think that "we have brains alone."

Miyoshi Kenjyo (Miyoshi):
In terms of having "brains", he named Phenox as a coined term for phenom (genius) + phoenix (phoenix).

G:
How do you "grasp the environment"?

Miyoshi:
Phenox is equipped with two cameras and a range sensor in the horizontal direction and downward direction. With this camera and sensor you can accurately grasp the external environment and estimate the position (self position) where you are. So far, there was an autonomous flight robot that can estimate its own position by using a computer with high computing capacity as a ground plane, but because it requires a high processing capability, it is possible to load it to the brain portion of the flying robot itself It could not be called a board). Phenox is the first autonomous flight robot in the world to be able to onboard this brain part on this small machine.


G:
How was it possible to be on-board?

Kimura:
In general, self position estimation is performed by calculating external images. We calculate and process data of cameras and sensors, such as image features and depth, but we have developed a "light" computational algorithm that can be computed with parallel computers called small FPGAs. It is a picture that the point is moving and moving.


◆Reason for giving to Kickstarter

G:
I heard that this time, I gave a Phenox project to Kickstarter, is this supposed to be Phenox's commercialization?

Kimura:
No. Actually, we do not want to raise funds with cloud funding and to reduce costs by mass production. Phenox development project is "Information Processing Promotion Organization's Information Processing Promotion Organization"Exploit and cultivate untapped IT human resources(Hereinafter referred to as "unexplored projects"). The unexplored project is a project of the philosophy of discovering and nurturing young individuals with qualities and sophistication of original ideas and technologies and business seeds that can create innovation by making use of IT technology, but unexplored in 2013 Phenox was adopted for the project.

Miyoshi:
Unexplored projects are scheduled to start in October 2013 and be reported in June 2014, but it is not good for "I made this kind of thing". We do not support a specific research, but because it is the intention that "I want you to take action to change Japanese IT." When thinking about what we can do for that kind of perspective, we chose Kickstarter as a place to appeal Phenox's technology to the world through cloud funding.

Kimura:
I would like people other than researchers doing related research to see Phenox. Specifically, it is a community that makes Drone with DIY and makes it publicDIY DronesIt is a geeky person. There are more than 60,000 Drone enthusiasts around the world, mainly in the USA, and the community is very lively. I call them "hackers" with the meaning of respect, but I would like people of such hackers to see Phenox. I expect what I can get from various opinions such as feedback. I am going to leave in an academically closed world without being confined. Because I think that it is more expansive to spread publicly.


G:
You are already applying for projects to Kickstarter, are not you?

Miyoshi:
We did it on May 3. It seems that it will take about one week for the review and the project has not yet been finalized. It seems that the judgment result will come to today as well, I am a bit sorrowful (laugh)

G:
Is there something wrong with Kickstarter's review?

Kimura:
There seems to be one. I am planning to prepare with a thorough stance by listening to seniors who have experience of running projects in Kickstarter who are from unexplored business.

G:
What is the contents of Kickstarter's project?

Miyoshi:
For this time, we are planning to deliver Phenox to the hands of investors with only 30 units.

G:
Only 30 cars?

Kimura:
Although it is small, this is the last minute. Actually, Phenox mounts cameras, microphones, sonar sensors etc mounted by hand.

G:
Is it handmade?

Kimura:
I agree. Fine, handmade (lol) frames are also made one by one with 3D printers.


G:
How long will it take to build a single unit?

Kimura:
It can be assembled in around 2 hours per unit on condition that 3D printing of the frame has been completed. Of course, you can do it more efficiently by putting together the same stages, but it will take quite a while for the flight test after assembly.

G:
It is delivered to the flight test. How much investment can you get Phenox?

Miyoshi:
It is high as it is a small quantity production of 30 units ... .... You get one for $ 750 (about 75,000 yen).

Kimura:
Various parts costs are also expensive, but the board fee is particularly high. Although I ask them to make exclusive boards as designed, their board mounting fee is very high if the number of orders is small.

Miyoshi:
We know that mass production will make it overwhelmingly cheap, but then we will not be able to follow everything by ourselves.

Kimura:
I thought that I would like to follow through troubles and so forth through e-mails and so on, so that 30 units can handle it properly. Above all, two people can not produce more than that (laugh)

G:
What kind of people are supposed to be the investors of Kickstarter?

Kimura:
Phenox has Linux. Also, since I use C language program, I think that it is for people who have some knowledge. We provide tutorial libraries (source code) such as hovering, image acquisition / rising / descent, but I think that the extent to which I can improve by themselves is wide and flexibility is high. It is suitable for hackers because it can customize variously with self-responsibility.


◆Future research

G:
Are the two of you currently in touch with Phenox?

Kimura:
I agree. Until at least the unexplored business is over, it is clear to Phenox until June.

G:
What kind of research would you like to do in the future, including Phenox? Please tell us what you are thinking about the near target first.

Kimura:
The closest goal is to make the Kickstarter project a success (lol) and then to write a research paper by Phenox. Actually, the current fourth generation Phenox is full of technologies that have not been announced yet in academic settings. Currently, the patent pending technology from the University of Tokyo is the first generation Phenox technology, and has made remarkable progress from that time on.

Miyoshi:
There is the aspect that the result of the past has been delayed and is on the world. There is something that you can say "That technology that is used in Phenox is amazing", but "In fact it is already done ahead of that," (laugh)

Kimura:
First of all, it is usual to publish in a paper, but this time Kickstarter thinks that it is a rare form of the place of the first show of exhibition. I got an opinion that it is better to give it out at the international conference first, but I think that it is a good opportunity, including unexplored projects.

G:
After Kickstarter, you are likely to be busy making articles.

Kimura:
Yes. I think that it is necessary to further elaborate algorithms because it can not be a paper simply because "Phenox was made".

Miyoshi:
I'd like to do "group flight" to make Phenox fly and collaborate at the same time as a close target. Originally, Mr. Komura studied Quad Copter, I was developing an airship. Mr. Komamura was in the direction of how smart the robot should be made, and I was in the direction of being able to "spatially direct" with an airship.

Kimura:
I began full-scale development of quad-cotter from my first year of master's degree and started to fly well in about a year. I invited Miyoshi to consider applying for unexplored projects. And he formed Fenox Lab.

Miyoshi:
At that time, I was wondering if I could make an airship for entertainment media, so Phenox felt that entertainment was also good. For example, I think that it is interesting to leave company receptionist to Phenox. I said group flight earlier, but more than one Phenox welcomes me at the entrance and am entertained during the waiting time. I think that how to use is also fun to start following the directions as long as it comes with time. I think that there are elements of "enjoyment" that exceeds practical use.


G:
Please tell me if you have the ultimate goal or something like a vision.

Kimura:
I would like to make robots more familiar, including flying robots. Many of today's robots are connected to the network and I think that many are used in the role of "gathering information". It seems natural from clouds and big data fashion. However, there are times when you can not see the whole picture, so then I think that I can not have familiarity with robots. The more closed system robot will be more communication with human beings.

G:
As I was listening to the Department of Aerospace Engineering and imagining an airplane and a rocket, it was surprising that the research theme of the two was a robot.

Miyoshi:
It is a feeling that we are studying the "aerial" on a familiar scale.

Kimura:
Since it is dominated by gravity, things are concentrated in the lower part of daily space. That's why the space above is empty. Ultimately, I think that the world where flight Robo resides in the space and co-live while communicating with humans is also ant.

◆From Kickstarter to the world
During the interview, a notice came from Kickstarter approving the Phenox project. What a coincidence!


Unexpectedly guts pose.


It is a very nice smile.


◆Phenox project
And, at 12 o'clock May 12, 2014, the Kickstarter project finally started was from the following site.

Phenox: intelligent, interactive and programmable drone by frtr - Kickstarter
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/253110733/phenox-intelligent-interactive-and-programmable-dr


Two people who told "The Kickstarter project is the start point of Phenox". I am looking forward to see how Phenox will flutter in the sky of the world in the future.

The deadline for investment by the Phenox project is until 11:00 on June 11, 2014 Japan time.

·2014/05 / 13 Addendum
The Phenox project succeeded in acquiring the capital of 30 vehicles originally planned in less than 2 days.