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Robot Unravels the Mystery of Walking
manchineel writes with a link to a BBC article on the lessons learned from a project in locomotive robotics. 'Runbot', as it is known, is the result of a modern technology combined with a 1930s physiology study into human locomotion. The study found that walking is largely an automatic process; we only engage our brains when we have to navigate around an obstacle or deal with rough terrain. "The basic walking steps of Runbot, which has been built by scientists co-operating across Europe, are controlled by reflex information received by peripheral sensors on the joints and feet of the robot, as well as an accelerometer which monitors the pitch of the machine. These sensors pass data on to local neural loops - the equivalent of local circuits - which analyse the information and make adjustments to the gait of the robot in real time."
Don't we need a crawlbot before a runbot, or did I miss something here?
libertarian: (n) socially liberal, financially conservative; neither left, nor right.
Everytime I read another study about how scientists have tried to replicate something humans find easy, and only manage to produce something that performs the task awkwardly, stupidly or otherwise ineptly, I feel vaguely in awe of how amazing the human body is.
Especially considering we appear to be a result of dumb luck and retarded fish monkeys..
I'm getting some mixed signals from this article:
"How does Runbot walk?"
"The basic walking steps of Runbot"
"When Runbot first encounters a slope these low level control circuits 'believe' they can continue to walk up the slope without having to change anything."
"Runbot walks in a very different way from robots like Asimo, star of the Honda TV adverts, said Prof Woergoetter."
"The first step in building Runbot was creating a biomechanical frame that could support passive walking patterns."
"So using the information from its local circuits Runbot can walk on flat surfaces at speeds of more than three leg lengths per second."
"Prof Woergoetter said Runbot was able to learn new walking patterns after only a few trials."
"Runbot is a small, biped robot which can move at speeds of more than three leg lengths per second, slightly slower than the fastest walking human."
And last but not least:
"Four other scientists - Poramate Manoonpong, Tao Geng, Tomas Kulvicius and Bernd Porr - are also involved in the project, which has been running for the last four years."
Sorry guys, but it really isn't living up to it's name.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
The researcher's page on the robot http://www.cn.stir.ac.uk/~tgeng/research.html. Check the videos they are quite amazing.
I remember from my animal physiology classes seeing experiments about how cats walk. Apparently quite a few of the nerves which control the muscles used for walking can be severed prior to the dorsal root ganglion, and when placed on a treadmill the cats will still walk just fine even though there is no signal going from the brain to the muscles themselves.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
The British have been working on this for years!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqhlQfXUk7w
It's nice to see the Runbot "has been built by scientists co-operating across Europe".
Operator, give me the number for 911!
This is either a sign of a misspent youth, or excessive post-grad funding.
C-x C-s C-x k
In other words, misspent youth.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
Interestingly, because of your post, the fourth link on the google search is now this page.