One Giant Step for Humanoids

An anonymous reader writes "There are a few robots that do amazing things. Honda's Asimo can walk backward and climb stairs. Sega's idog can dance to music. A tougher nut to crack has been making robots walk like humans. Today, scientists introduce three humanoid striders at the annual AAAS meeting. Unlike other robots that have to power every move, these three save energy by letting gravity do a lot of the work. Like humans, they pick up their feet and just let 'em drop. Engineers say they'll inform the next generations of humanoids and also improve design of robotic prostheses for people. And hey, why not send them to Mars to look for those microbes?"

Comments

get on with it already

[QuantumG]

I wish Honda would do something with ASIMO that is actually useful. Send him to work at McDonalds (yes, I recognise the irony of spending millions of dollars to replace someone who gets paid minimum wage) or at an old folks home or something. Instead of focusing on the intricate details of "standing up" and "walking forward" why not choose something for him to do, and solve all the problems needed for him to do it. But don't invent Yet Another Bi-pedal Locomotion Technique, that problem is solved more than enough to move on to the next problem.

Re:get on with it already

[QuantumG]

That's my point. The reason ASIMO can't do shit is because they are fiddling with walking and balancing instead of hand-eye co-ordination and speech understanding.