Billy and Charlie are going big

The two robots built by doctoral student Yonatan Spitz, from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion, overcome obstacles and slopes. The secret: a genetic-evolutionary development method

In the beginning there was Billy - a blue robot 10 centimeters high and 15 centimeters long. At the end of the 'pregnancy' - a month of planning, printing, programming, connecting the electronics and correcting defects - he began to walk and overcome obstacles. He was later joined by his colleague, Charlie the Green. Both walk around the campus under the guidance of Jonathan Spitz, their 'dad', who directs them using his smartphone. They are able to overcome difficulties and obstacles such as stones, sand and large slopes.

Spitz, a doctoral student in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, was born in Argentina, and after high school he came to Israel as part of the 'Atid' program. "This decision was a combination of Zionism that I absorbed at home and in the youth movement, and a desire to study at the Technion. The Technion is a very famous institution among the Jewish community in Argentina, and many young men want to come to Israel and study at the Technion."

13 years have passed since he landed in Israel, and he remembers that day well. "I left Argentina on December 23, 2002, for a twenty-hour flight, which landed me in Israel at three in the morning. From there I arrived at the absorption center in Kfar Saba." In June 2003 he graduated from a Hebrew studio, and in October he began his studies at the Technion preparatory school. After a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, he continued his master's studies, and in 2012 he switched to the direct path to a doctorate, which he will soon complete. "The Technion is very close to my heart," he says. "There are students who are counting the days until they graduate, but I'm actually enjoying it. I didn't just do three degrees in a row here."

He conducts his doctoral research in the SMILE laboratory at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, under the guidance of Professor Miriam Sachsenhuis. "Today we have at our disposal means that were not available until not many years ago: enormous computing power and 200D printers," he explains. "It is true that planning remains a complicated task, but XNUMXD printing allows you to produce very complex structures 'at home' at a very low cost. Each of the robots I created cost me about $XNUMX, that's all."
Billy and Charlie were developed by Jonathan in his spare time ("it's not part of the PhD") as proof of the feasibility of building more sophisticated mobile robots. He pioneered the use of XNUMXD printers in his lab to create walking robots that would demonstrate the control methods he designed. The movement style of the robots was developed inspired by nature, i.e. - natural walking. "Humans walk from the age of one or two, so it seems to them that walking is a very simple thing - at least on the plain. Only in difficult field conditions are they required to concentrate on their steps. The controllers I developed also work without the need for feedback on smooth planes, and when they move on slopes they use minimal feedback." To march his robots he built a 'genetic algorithm' - an algorithm that develops in the simulation of 'mutations' and survival of the fittest.

"My success is in building robots with a high crime rate, which are not expensive, so they can also be produced as 'swarms' of robots for various uses in the field of security and accompanying and treating sick people. And the control method I developed (and registered as a patent) can be applied to the walking control of humanoid robots as well as medical robots (such as ReWalk) and walking rehabilitation robots. And really, in order to translate the idea and turn it into a venture, I signed up for the BizTEC competition and also for Cornell-Tech's Runway program."