30 Years Ago, Robots Learned to Walk Without Falling

(spectrum.ieee.org)

18 points | by vinhnx 2 days ago

5 comments

  • tomxor 14 minutes ago
    These robots weren't really "walking" in the sense that humans walk through continuous dynamic balancing, i.e falling forward.

    These used quasi-static walking, where the zero moment point (like a moving centre of gravity) is kept within the support polygon of the footprint. This is what gives them their weird swaying gait and extremely conservative movement characteristics. You could never make a bipedal robot run, jump or respond to large and sudden external forces using this method. It's essentially a balance free movement hack.

  • amelius 40 minutes ago
  • noritaka88 22 minutes ago
    Doraemon is the one you befriend Gundam is the one you ride to lead the way The round thing that cleans the whole room is the Roomba Robots these days are there to help with the housework Next up, emotional comfort? We might not even need arms and legs
  • kotaKat 37 minutes ago
    The sad part though: What even has Honda done with their humanoid robotics research? I remember being starry-eyed, excited as a kid to see ASIMO and all the amazing things it was doing. Past a couple hardware revisions they basically just let the thing rot out to die and it hurts.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X23jNzL3wuE

    This commercial still holds a lot of spirit and heart to it. I really wish we could tap progress on the shoulder and ask for more forwards again...

  • aaron695 1 hour ago
    [dead]