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Sony Claims First Running Humanoid Robot
News for nerds writes "Sony Corporation announced the new development of Sony's humanoid robot, enabling integrated motion control for walking, jumping and running on feet. By applying this technology Sony has created the world's first running humanoid robot 'QRIO'. Japanese PC watch has an article with pictures and movies of QRIO running at 14 meters per minute, sometimes with both feet leaving the floor (= running)."
As we make these machines bigger and better and more like ourselves, shouldn't we also consider the possibility that they will at some point have to be assigned rights just as animals and even humans have rights?
There was a film with Robin Williams in it wherein a robot in fact reached sentience and it wasn't until after the robot's death that it was granted personhood and all the rights and privileges thereby.
Should we consider these creations of ours, no matter how sophisticated and intelligent nothing more than machines?
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Why? Give the robots a Kevlar skin, then load up soldiers' and Marines' rifles with training rounds. Then set the robots running around a mock battlefield to give our guys more realistic practice. We have the best hi-tech bombs and missiles in the world, but it's still boots on the ground that bring a war to conclusion.
Since when is 14 meters per minute considered "running"? Christ, even a grossly out-of-shape human can cover that distance in a few seconds. Bad translation of the Japanese? Should we factor scale into it? Did I miss something?
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It seems to me that wheels are faster than legs anyway. What is the obsession with getting robots to look and do things like humans.
My masters thesis is in robotics and most individuals do not comprehend how hard it is to make a bi-pedal robot walk unsupported. When you examine the biomechanics of a simple taks of walking, you quickly realize just how impressive of a feat it really is! (You parents out there know what I am talking about.) Baiscally to walk you have to fall forward and catch yourself with a leg that swings infront of you. Essentially you are in an equilibrium of falling forward and balancing yourself with your feet. Of course this is an over simplified approach and doesn't consider how your toes or balls of your foot assist. Bravo to Sony! And hopefully Honda and Sony get into a race and do some real development with each of their respective robots.
Qrios are really neat. Running is far from the coolest thing they can be programmed to do.
Two Qrios have had a sumo wrestling match before, complete with ceremonies.
Building a two-legged robot that can stand and move upright is significant because it opens the door to a host of devices such as robotised prosthetics for handicapped people, exoskeletons, and so on.
But please don't take the humanoid shape seriously. It is no more meaningful than a piece of wood carved into a humanoid puppet.
Japanese technology often makes objects that are cute and play to our anrthopomorphic instincts, but two-legs/two-arms/head do not make a human any more than the aibo is a real dog.
So enough of the "robot rights" and "robot soldier" comments, these are just embarassing. Asimov wrote fiction, and humanoid robots with human rights are like nuclear-powered flying cars, they say a lot about the hopes and fears of the time, but nothing at all about the realities of the future.
As has been commented, a majority of real humans do not have basic human rights, and probably never will. Robots are machines however cute they look. Get over it.
Robot soldiers? Of course, but why on earth in such a useless configuration? The robotic armies of the future will fly, roll, crawl, dig, swim. They will not look like people: given how good we are at detecting differences between people, even imagining humanoid robots built to infiltrate and deceive is pure fantasy.
What's left? First, a wonderful gadget, a toy. I'd like some of these at my parties, fembots with all the right curves, dancing on the stage. Secondly, some very innovative and useful technology for building new kinds of motive systems, especially for assisting people who don't have the full use of their own legs.
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Agreed that legs are better than wheels. But are 2 legs better than 4 or 6? It seems to me that a quadruped is more stable and can run faster too. The current advantage we have over animals is that we use 2 of our 4 limbs for manipulating objects. But a robot can be easily fitted with 4 legs and 2 or 4 arms. In other words, it's better to make a robot that doesn't necessarily look humanoid.
Sony Claims First Running Humanoid Robot Hasn't Honda's ASIMO been around for a couple years? ASIMO was walking and dancing bipedal-y since it was built...maybe I'm missing something...ASIMO and this thing look a lot alike as well.
I found that on Sony's website.
I have seen this robot here in Padova (Italy) last July at Robocup competition. I also took some pictures as this little toy got my attention: check out!
Anyway a man was throwing some colored circles on the ground, and this brilliant robot was wandering around looking for them and once he could detect them he started walking from one to the other. Great!
Compare IRobot to QRIO and tell me which one is cooler. ;-)
Large parts of our daily surroundings are also adapted for humanoids, including everything from height and width of doorways, to placement of doorhandles, placements of levers and buttons, shape of car seats etc. Robots designed to aid or accompany humans or serve humans as opposed to carrying out "industrial" tasks where the operator and the people the robot interact with can be assumed to be trained in operating it will need to be able to handle a substantial part of normal human surroundings and interact with them.
Japan is well on the way to dominating in the companion robot economy, which has been a theme in much science fiction through the decades. Who doesn't want a machine companion for work or whatever? Meanwhile the U.S. has been focusing on industrial robots to aid in manufacturing. Who has the competitive edge? Certainly Japan has the capabilities to make comparable industrial robots, but now also is way ahead in development of companions.
This strikes me as similar to the dawn of the personal computer era. The companies that focused on big iron and minis thought they were safely in a vibrant economic market. But when the personal computer took off the bigger machines began to fade and eventually the big iron companies had to adapt or die. The personal computer market also happens to be orders of magnitude larger than the big iron market ever was.
I see a lack of innovative planning in the U.S.; it's hard to invest in research on running bipedal robots when you need to increase your stock for the next quarter. It is very ironic to hear talk about American innovation in celebration of the Wright Brothers when we seem to have all but given up on innovative science as an economic force. Thankfully we have a few still willing to push the boundaries, but they are too few.
Not necessarily breakdancing, but they're dancing here (wmv). Extra points for figuring out what genre of music they're dancing to.
...And small. Much better than the Honda robots.
They're so cute!