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Robots Take To the Stairs

Posted by timothy on from the terrible-secret-of-space dept.

Singularity Hub writes "Robots can climb stairs, and they are doing it everywhere you look. 'No big deal' you say, but it really is a big deal. Five to ten years ago, almost nobody was doing it. Now grad students are doing it all by themselves for thesis projects. Check out our review of robots navigating stairs, which includes some awesome videos."

5 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Daleks by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

    What about Daleks?

    As seen on some slashdotter's sig:

    Real Daleks don't climb stairs. They level the building.

    --
    "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  2. PER ASPERA AD ESCALA by Philip+K+Dickhead · · Score: 5, Funny

    "A Rough Road Leads to the Stairs".

    --
    "Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
  3. Summary wording by EvanED · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Now grad students are doing it all by themselves for thesis projects."

    As a grad student, I found the wording of the summary amusing. I can confirm that yes, we can climb stairs if need be. The elevators in my CS building go out about once every two weeks for instance. (Wasn't that long ago that the motor in one of the shafts caught fire and shut down that shaft for over a week. During which the other shaft broke down too for a short time.)

    Of course, the real advance will be when robots follow in our paths and learn to take the elevator when one is available.

  4. Yay - next gen. Roomba will do stairs too by Mad+Hamster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    More chores for Roomba. More hammock time for me.

    --
    Yandelvayasna grldenwi stravenka
  5. wheeled and stable vs dynamically legged robots by soibudca · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I thought this article was a bit strange. Of the four or five videos posted, only one was a self contained two legged walker (the well known asimo). The others involved various specialized wheel systems. Even asimo relies on static stability. In fact robots (even legged ones) have been climbing stairs for at least 15 years. I remember in the early 90s the society of automobile engineers sponsored a contest for _undergraduate_ engineering students to develop legged robots that could traverse various obstacles -- One of them being a set of stairs. Every year several of the entries were able to pass that test. The more interesting recent developments are with dynamically stable and self contained robots that can climb stairs and traverse other obstacles. This really is a new development in the last 10 years. The most crazy cool example of this I've seen recently is the big dog.