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MIT Trains Robots To Jump

Nerval's Lobster writes: MIT just announced that its researchers have programmed a robotic cheetah that can leap over obstacles without a prompt from a human controller. The machine's onboard sensors rely on reflected laser-light to judge obstacles' distance and height, and use that data to fuel the algorithm for a safe jump. The robot's controlling algorithm takes into account such factors as the speed needed to launch its mass over the obstacle, the best position for a jump, and the amount of energy required from the onboard electric motor. As of this writing, the robot can clear 90 percent of obstacles on an open track. "A running jump is a truly dynamic behavior," Sangbae Kim, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, is quoted as saying in a university press release. "You have to manage balance and energy, and be able to handle impact after landing. Our robot is specifically designed for those highly dynamic behaviors." For years, some tech pundits have worried that robots and software will gradually replace human workers in key industries such as manufacturing and IT administration. Now they have something else to fret over: Robots replacing the world's hurdlers.

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  1. Slashdot Media Trains Users to Malware Install by Khyber · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    http://slashdot.org/submission...

    http://slashdot.org/submission...

    http://slashdot.org/submission...

    And then they get caught LYING about it.

    SourceForge/Slashdot Media is saying the project was abandoned in 2013. GIMP for Windows is constantly updated on a SLOW RELEASE CYCLE. We're talking a minimum of 5-6 months before any worthwhile incremental update. The updates through 2014 and this year show as much, plus any look at prior release cycles shows the same, with a period of almost ONE YEAR as a maximum update time. (That one was 11 months.)

    Yet the account is suddenly handled by SF-Editor1.

    Give me a fucking break, Slashdot. Do you REALLY want me to show where CentOS fails in security?

    I can give the internet every detail of your database, because you're too stupid to keep it properly encrypted.

    That includes who meta-moderated what. That means we can figure out your agenda.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.