Complex AI on small embedded systems: Humanoid robotics using mobile phones

Until recent years, the development of real-world humanoid robotics applications has been hampered by a lack of available mobile computational power. Unlike wheeled platforms, which can reasonably easily be expected to carry a payload of computers and batteries, humanoid robots couple a need for complex control over many degrees of freedom with a form where any significant payload complicates the balancing and control problem itself. In the last few years, however, an significant number of options for embedded processing suitable for humanoid robots have appeared (e.g. miniaturized motherboards such as beagle boards), along with ever-smaller and more powerful battery technology. Part of the drive for these embedded hardware breakthroughs has been the increasing demand by consumers for more sophisticated mobile phone applications, and these modem devices now supply much in the way of sensor technology that is also potentially of use to roboticists (e.g. accelerometers, cameras, GPS). In this paper, we explore the use of modem mobile phones as a vehicle for the sophisticated AI necessary for autonomous humanoid robots.