Bruce Lee's martial arts inspire space-age robot
Hong Kong's famous martial arts star Bruce Lee was the inspiration for a cutting-edge robot intended for use in space exploration.
An SAR-based scientist said Lee's expertise with the nunchuka - a weapon usually made from two pieces of wood joined with a short length of chain - influenced his design for the robot which was developed in the United States last year. It is the brainchild of Professor Xu Yang- sheng, an expert in robotics control and teleoperations.
Professor Xu, 39, who heads the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CU), believes it is time Hong Kong became a city with a high technology base.
'Hong Kong has always served as a trading centre,' he said. 'Right now, all the technology is in networking. Sooner or later, Hong Kong needs to know about research and development to be a technical centre.' Professor Xu has been appointed as chief adviser to China's National Telescience and Space Robotics Programme, one of several research groups operating under the National High-Technology Programme (NHTP) umbrella.
The State Council set up the NHTP in 1986 to plan, design and evaluate key national scientific projects.
Professor Xu takes part in research and is recognised for his inventions.
He has both a Bachelor and a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Zhejiang University, near Shanghai.
He went to the United States in 1985 where, in 1989, he obtained a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He then joined Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh where he established the world's first zero-gravity space robotics laboratory.
'The laboratory creates an environment where there is no gravity so the robots that function in space can also function and be tested here for space programmes,' he said. In 1994, Professor Xu developed a detachable robot for lunar exploration.
'It stands on a small car and can get off the car and move around the moon's surface,' he said.
A year later, he followed with a prototype for an one- wheeled, egg-shaped robot capable of roaming the lunar surface without falling over.
Last year, the kung fu-inspired robot was developed. Professor Xu explained: 'Bruce Lee was famous for his nunchuka, which are really an extension of his joints. He projected force to the sticks, which turned them from passive joints to active joints. This robot works on the same principle and is good for space exploration because it can feel through its passive joints, but you still control it.' Meanwhile, the broad-ranging mainland programme will include research into both satellite communications and maintenance of hardware in space.
