Surena (robot)

SURENA I

The SURENA I project was carried out at the Center for Advanced Vehicles (CAV), University of Tehran, with the financial support of the R&D Society of Iranian Industries and Mines. During the public presentation ceremony, SURENA’s certificate was signed by Iran's minister of industry. SURENA I's height and weight was 165 centimeters and 60 kilograms, respectively. The robot was able to speak according to a predefined text, and had remote control and predefined path tracking abilities. The robot was able to play football and speak Persian. Also, The robot was developed to show humanoid robot technical knowledge at University of Tehran,Iran.

SURENA II

After SURENA I, the SURENA II humanoid robot project was launched in 2008. Again, the project was carried out in CAV, and financial support was provided by the R&D Society of Iranian Industries and Mines. The design and manufacturing procedure was finished on July 3, 2010. SURENA II was capable of walking, as well as performing some exhibitive scenarios. The 145 cm SURENA II humanoid robot had 22 Degrees of Freedom (12 Dof in lower-body and 10 Dof in upper-body), and the robot was unveiled to the public during the industry and mine anniversary. After that public demonstration, SURENA II made headline news in national and international media, which dubbed SURENA II as the symbol of Iranian robotics.

SURENA III

The design and fabrication procedure of the new generation of SURENA humanoid robot with the financial support of Industrial Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) of Iran has been carried out in University of Tehran. SURENA III has 31 Degrees of Freedom (DOF) with 198 centimeters height and 98 kg weight and its maneuverability, speed, and intelligence have been greatly improved. During this project, a team with 70 members composed of faculty members, robotic researchers and engineers from all over the country took part in the design, fabrication, and implementation procedure of the robot. The project has been conducted in three phases. The first phase focused on the design, modeling, sensor-actuator installation and mechanical fabrication, while the second phase more dealt with dynamics and control challenges, i.e. stability and walking speed enhancement. In the third phase, the high level control and artificial intelligence features have been added to the robot, and an original software framework has been developed.

SURENA III with 190 cm height is one of the tallest humanoid robots have ever been realized around the globe. Despite the last generations.

SURENA IV, whole-body gripping motion

On December 14, 2019, the fourth generation of Surena humanoid robot was unveiled officially. The robot has been developed in CAST (Center of Advanced Systems and Technologies) by more than 50 researchers under the supervision of Dr. Aghil Yousefi-Koma, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Tehran. The performance included both upper and lower body motions, interaction with a host and speech. The project is funded by the presidential deputy for science and technology and is considered as the symbol of technology advancement in the direction of peace and humanity with the goal of designing an appropriate research platform, more developed than previous versions.

The first and simplest version of the robot (SURENA I, 2008) had only 8 degrees of freedom (DoF) and the second one (SURENA II, 2010) had 22 DoF with a walking speed of 0.03 meters per second. Compared to the third generation (SURENA III, 2015) which had 31 DoF, the new adult-sized Humanoid robot has 43 DoF and higher dexterity in the hands, making it able to grip different objects with different shapes. SURENA IV is 1.7 meters tall and has a mass of 68 kilograms; it is much lighter and smaller than SURENA III (98 kilograms and 1.9 meters tall) due to the better structure design based on topology optimization, compact customized actuator design, and the SLA 3D printing technology used for its cover.

In the new generation, the control loop frequency has been increased to 200 Hz by exploiting FPGA board, making it possible to implement online controllers and estimators. By the means of Robot Operation System (ROS), state monitoring, real time implementation of algorithms, and simultaneous running of several programs has become straightforward.

Improving the robot- interaction with the environment was one of the main goals in the SURENA IV project. The robot has the abilities of face detection and counting, object detection and position measurement, activity detection, speech recognition (speech to text) and speech generation (text to speech) resulting to achieve better voice user interface. Online grip, face and object follow, and action imitation have been implemented by combining the AI abilities and whole-body motion planning.

While the mean speed of SURENA III was 0.3 kilometers per hour, SURENA IV can walk continuously with a speed of 0.7 kilometers per hour, thanks to the dynamic motion of its center of mass and online controllers. The robot can walk on uneven terrain using novel contact sensors in its sole. The researchers at CAST have developed online contact controllers to adjust the angle and position of foot during stepping. Gazebo, Choreonoid, and MATLAB have been used to simulate the motion of the robot and evaluate different scenarios including upper body and lower body motions (e.g. side walking, backward walking, turning around, and push recovery).

• Surena 4 Official Video
• Surena 3 Video by IEEE

• Science and technology in Iran
• Humanoid robot
• CAST (Center of Advanced Systems and Technologies)

• SURENA Humanoid Robot ENG Website
• SURENA Humanoid Robot Persian Website
• CAST Official Website (eng)
• CAST Official Website (persian)
• Iran Demonstrates New Humanoid Robot Surena III