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We're getting one step closer to the Jetsons
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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 We're getting one step closer to the Jetsons 
NYTimes wrote: For Simpler Robots, a Step Forward
WASHINGTON
THE moment of truth had come for the knee-high robot standing on its improvised runway at a hotel news conference.
Reporters circled it, their microphones and cameras trained on the machine as it tried to start up. Then a curious 13-year-old boy who had joined the throng reached out, poked his fingers between the robot's metal legs and gave them an exploratory push.
With that, the robot, built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, lived up to its nickname, the Toddler. It rocked gently until the poking stopped, steadied itself and marched firmly across the level surface, a tabletop propped up on cinderblocks.
If two-legged robots are ever going to walk among people, they may look a lot like this sturdy machine and two others, introduced Feb. 17 on the makeshift catwalk at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The robots - the others were built at Cornell and at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands - are designed in a way that differs significantly from standard creations. One of the robots moves so efficiently that in the future it may be able to amble along for a day, not the 20 or 30 minutes most robots now manage without recharging or refueling.
"And our robots walk far more naturally," said Andy Ruina, a professor at Cornell who took one of the robots to the meeting and whose nephew Josh Bennett, of Chevy Chase, Md., did the unscripted poking...
Dr. Ruina's robot and its companions from Delft and M.I.T. are descendants of some early ramp-walking machines, mechanical devices that have been around for a century. These contraptions - toys like waddling penguins and later two-legged robots - were not powered in any way. Instead, they relied on gravity and the mechanics of objects in motion to walk stably down sloping surfaces.
Modern versions of the machines, called passive-dynamic walkers, have been built for decades and have long been thought useful models of human locomotion, Dr. Ruina said. But in the past the machines were not able to walk on level ground.
Now the researchers from the three universities have shown that the classic passive-dynamic walking machines need not depend on gravitational power. Instead, they have put small motors on their robots and shown that they can walk on level ground. The robots' workings are described in detail in the journal Science...
This less-is-more approach also applies to sensory feedback. The Cornell and Delft robots don't use sophisticated, real-time calculations or a lot of feedback as do other robots that continuously sense the angles of their joints, for example. "This suggests that human walking, too, might require only very simple controls," Dr. Ruina said. (The M.I.T. robot does incorporate sensory feedback as a means of learning how to walk.)
Michael J. Foster, director of the National Science Foundation division that supported some of the M.I.T. research, said the work demonstrated that complex objects could be controlled simply. The walking robot goes through complex motions, yet explicit computer control is not needed over every joint.
"Much of the control is given to us by the laws of physics rather than by our own efforts in programming," Dr. Foster said...
It was important, Mr. Collins said, to bear in mind the way people move naturally. He said "the leg is analogous to a pendulum," which can either be let go to swing or driven exactly in a movement. He added, "We are letting the legs swing naturally."
Right now, the passive-dynamic robots move forward only, and they will need far more power, for example, to climb stairs.
R2D2? C3PO? I can't wait 'til these guys can do my laundry and bring me my drinks!
j/k
Its actually quite interesting how they looked at old cheap walking toys as part of their observations.
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| Thu Feb 24, 2005 3:17 pm |
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bABA
Commander and Chef
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2004 12:56 am
Posts: 30505
Location: Tonight ... YOU!
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Well, these robots got nothing on Asimo. hes been around for a longer time.
more info here
http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/
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| Thu Feb 24, 2005 3:58 pm |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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asimo came up the article though. Its too power consuming. It can only go about 20-30 minutes before needing to be refueled because every limb of it is controlled. The new ones can last up to a day because they're tapping into inertia laws, etc, and don't require ass much micro-management of each limb. Hence more fuel efficient. Its actually realy interesting. I wonder if it will also affect research on locomotion and cars?
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| Thu Feb 24, 2005 4:10 pm |
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bABA
Commander and Chef
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2004 12:56 am
Posts: 30505
Location: Tonight ... YOU!
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asimo can last for an hour now.
plus look at him. Hes cool!
And hes a Honda.
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| Thu Feb 24, 2005 5:32 pm |
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El Maskado
Arrrrrrrrrrgggghhhhhhhhhh!
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 8:17 pm
Posts: 21572
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bABA wrote: asimo can last for an hour now.
plus look at him. Hes cool!
And hes a Honda. Its too bad he cant bow like those japanese business men, he would make a good geisha
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| Thu Feb 24, 2005 5:37 pm |
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FILMO
The Original
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2004 10:19 am
Posts: 9808
Location: Suisse
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I dont know. Look at them. The time they save me I will easyly need to fix them when something is brooken on that guys.
_________________Libs wrote: FILMO, I'd rather have you eat chocolate syrup off my naked body than be a moderator here.
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| Thu Feb 24, 2005 5:41 pm |
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