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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."

13 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. Protecting us by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Funny

    This thing will protect us from the terrible secret of space.

    Pak Chooie Unf!

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    liqbase :: faster than paper
  2. Chairbot Mech moves 3/5/0 by bughouse26 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll take one with 6 Medium Lasers, an AC/20, a PPC-10, and an LRM-6 please.

  3. Payback by SPrintF · · Score: 5, Funny

    Payback's comin', Ballmer... walkin' slow.

    --

    Honesty. Loyalty. Kindness. Laughter. Generosity. Magic!

  4. Steve Ballmer Version by aschlemm · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Steve Ballmer version of this chair will automatically throw itself across the room. :)

  5. It's a little large. by mark-t · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  6. May I be the first.... by Xinef+Jyinaer · · Score: 5, Funny

    May I be the first to say, "Goliath Online". And just in time for SC2

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    Some days I just get bored and Troll post all the memes I can think of...
  7. Technical Paper by morcheeba · · Score: 5, Informative

    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!

  8. Re:One thought by ross.w · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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!

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    If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
  9. good timing by Jeek+Elemental · · Score: 5, Funny

    was considering taking up jogging but havent cause of all the running involved, this might be the push needed.

  10. Ok, Dude, by Cadallin · · Score: 5, Funny

    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!

  11. Re:If you're gonna build a chairbot, do it right.. by Doctor+Memory · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

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    Just junk food for thought...
  12. LipoBot by Voice+of+Meson · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

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    Dammit! I had a good one.
  13. Re:One thought by paleo2002 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    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.