Tai Chi Robots

dknight writes "It seems that Chinese scientists are currently developing a robot which is capable of doing tai chi. The robot is being developed by the Beijing University of Science and Engineering, and is touted to be a great breakthrough in worker safety, as these robots could be used to perform dangerous work. They are supposedly able to sense changes in the slope of the earth around them (hills, etc.) and balance themselves out."

Comments

I'd only point out that. . .

[kfg]

Tai Chi is not "shadow boxing" as the basically uninformative blurb the story links to states. It's a legitimate martial art perfectly useful for beating the crap out of people.

Yes, it has it's solo forms, typically practiced in slow motion, just as other martial arts have *their* practice kata, and just as these other martial arts have kata with partners so does Tai Chi, as well as full out sparing.

Don't be fooled by the new age types teaching it badly to Granny in the park, and don't take lessons in it from any instructor not competent to teach it *as* a martial art. They don't know what they're doing.

That said, any robot that can go through a Yang Long Form with me is a *major* step forward in humanoid robotics. Hell, it takes a great deal of practice and training for a *human* to do it vaguely properly and I want to see this puppy in action.

I wonder how it would do in "pushing hands"? That would be the ultimate test.

KFG

OK...

[Mac Degger]

I see lots of disparaging comments on this one. But I remember seeing Asimo (the Honda robot...please, no SFII jokes) in action and thinking "Jesus, look at that!". Imagine Moore's law applied to that.

Asimo already looked pretty much like a granny in slightly slo-mo. Now add taichi into the mix...that's a complex balancing act most humans can't even do (try it once, before you joke about it...stand on one leg, have the other in the air to the front, put both arms to the side of your body that has the leg in the air...what, you fell down? That's why it's hard. Now add movements to it, all the while balanced and controlled. And sloooow. Get it now?).

I tell you, the Japanese and the Chinese have a big thing here...hardly anyone in the west is taking this seriously (excluding some at for example MIT who are considered slightly strange), and consequently the west will have a HUGE disadvantage when housekeeping robots come out in ten, fifteen years time.
And this time, they're not kidding; look what's been done in 5 years time...from barely crawling (infant) to selfsufficient, internal powersource, full balance, near full range of motion (granny). The processing power is there, now it's just a matter of application and cost. And products like Aibo (which I hate, too) will cover dev costs.

This is a bit of a ramble, I know (champange has that effect on me :P ) but hear this: robots (Asimov's, to be precise) are coming, and the Aseans have a lead on the rest of the world because they took the long view. They have the patents because they took the time and money to develop something not deemed feasable...but looky here, it's slowly but surely turning out to be not only feasible, but thanks to Aibo (and production robots like the ones FIAT makes &uses thanks to the Asians) profittable too.

Thank god someone had the foresight...my IIIc made me feel I was living Star Trek, the next Asimo might make me think I'm living in Asimov's world. I love technology :)