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Chairbot Walks You Around While You Sit
Gary writes "What do you get when you combine a robot and a chair? The Hubo FX-1 chairbot, of course. In what is perhaps my favorite robot design yet, this giant chair with legs looks like it came out of some ridiculous 80's sci-fi movie or something, but it's very, very real. HUBO FX-1 is two meters in height, and weighs 150 kg. The person sitting can control the robot easily using the built in joystick. Each ankle has a 3-axis force/torque sensor which measures the normal force and 2 moments. Each foot has an inclination sensor which measures the angle of the slope. Also, the rate gyro and the inclination sensor of the body allow the device to stabilize itself."
This thing will protect us from the terrible secret of space.
Pak Chooie Unf!
liqbase
Chairbot is a great idea and all but its way too high off the ground to be useful in the office. If I built a chairbot, I'd do it right. It would have 8 legs and kinda crawl around like a spider, keeping you low to the ground. It would be so awesome.
I'll take one with 6 Medium Lasers, an AC/20, a PPC-10, and an LRM-6 please.
Payback's comin', Ballmer... walkin' slow.
Honesty. Loyalty. Kindness. Laughter. Generosity. Magic!
...I'd be ordering a couple. Just imagine doing job interviews in/on such a thing :D
I don't read replies by ACs.
The Steve Ballmer version of this chair will automatically throw itself across the room. :)
But if they can get it down to a more manageable size, chairs with legs will be great for people who are otherwise stuck in a wheelchair... it will make all kinds of places accessible to them that weren't previously.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
May I be the first to say, "Goliath Online". And just in time for SC2
Some days I just get bored and Troll post all the memes I can think of...
I found this interesting technical paper on the robot: Experimental Realization of Dynamic Walking for a Human-Riding Biped Robot, HUBO FX-1. It has lots of pretty pictures and graphs and gets in to the control-system problems they had when they developed it. Each step runs through three different balance control strategies, which they outline in detail. It's almost enough information to build your own!
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Maybe so that paralegics and quadriplegics can use stairs like everyone else? A lighter and slimmer version would be a superior solution to using an electric wheelchair, provided it can be done sufficiently cheaply.
Hey, they have to start somewhere!
If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
I've got a quad friend who'd buy one of these in a shot if they were cheap enough.
To go hiking in the hills, walking over dunes on the beach, all the things that wheels aren't really suitable for.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
was considering taking up jogging but havent cause of all the running involved, this might be the push needed.
This was my first thought. Wheels are no good on rough and uneven terrain.
I just wonder WTF would buy a 2m tall 2 legged monstrosity, when 6 short legs would be much simpler to control and balance. This thing is rediculously impractical.
Then I read the end of TFA about soldiers on these things with chain guns and rpgs. My internal school boy nearly wet himself."Sure it may be a huge target on an inherently unstable pedal configuration with an inability to assume a prone position or find effective cover, but hey, it's a bit like a Mech!"
Wankers.
I don't therefore I'm not.
Stephan Hawking NEEDS this thing. All it needs is a set of grasping hands on long arms so he can crush his enemies like Robo-Nixon. That would be so awesome. In any case, add some lasers and missiles and you've got a fully functional Gundam!
....the applications of this and derivatives seem fairly extensive.
There's an inherent advantage of legs over wheels - that's why we have to go out of our way to make ramps for the wheelchair-bound. This device represents, to me, an important step (HAH!) in design of legged machines. Having a robot which can walk intelligently over unpredictable surfaces would be pretty useful.
Just off the top of my head, here are some areas this could come in handy:
Construction/mining/etc. - As it is, everything needs to be carted around by trucks, which aren't maneuverable in the way a set of legs can be;
The disabled - as mentioned by a few, the wheel in wheelchair makes things very tough for our legless friends. With a legchair, they could maybe climb stairs and go over rougher terrain;
Military - same deal. It's basically the first step toward a genuine Mech;
Automated factories - no longer are we limited to wheels/tracks/conveyor belts. There's gotta be some advantage to that.
Space? - The idea of a droid repairing your spaceship just got a little less out there, maybe?
There are probably more, too. I think the chair itself is retarded, but the research that's gone into getting a set of functioning, intelligent legs is pretty useful.
There are 10 kinds of people in this world: those who understand binary, and nine other kinds of people.
Heh, that was my first thought: "Jesus, how soon before I see these things stomping around Wal-Mart?" I swear, I go there about five times a year, and every time it's like Bloated Freaks on Wheels week.
Just junk food for thought...
If we could hook up some Liposuction equipment to it, then use the extracted fat of the occupant as a fuel for the machine we'd really be getting somewhere. Their fat arses would actually be hauling them around. Ha!
LipoBot - Patent Pending.
Dammit! I had a good one.
With no armour whatsoever, a few million nanobots that eat ammunition would be more effective than tanks, _and_ they'd be completely uneffected by the tripwires that are so easy to set up in urban environments. Not nearly as exciting though.
I don't therefore I'm not.
Whenever a new design for a 2-legged robot shows up, people immediately complain about how impractical bipedalism is and that the problem can easily be solved with more legs. But if that were the case, if there were no advantage to bipedalism, then bipedal organisms would not have shown up at all, let alone numerous times in separate groups of animals through history.
Once the balance problem has been solved, bipedal robots will be as fast and agile as bipedal humans, dinosaurs (avian and non-), etc. And then Will Smith will have to save us all from them.
The 'grey goo' solution. Drop them on enemy territory and slowly reduce the whole country to 'grey goo'.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Obviously you have never been to Australia.
There's kangaroos who use 2 legs (albeit with a hopping gait and a tail for balance) - but they have no problems clearing 6 ft fences, can cruise at 25 km/h and sprint for up to 2km at 40km/h) , and emus for a start (top speed about 50km/h. Africa has ostriches too of course.
Not to mention penguins? how could you forget about them, on slashdot!