Robot Unravels the Mystery of Walking 134
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."
Planar Walker i.e. 2D only (Score:5, Interesting)
Cats do more or less the same thing (Score:5, Interesting)
Backyard ant experiment (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Arm yourself with a box cutter, straight razor, razor blade or scalpel
2. Capture your favorite back yard ant.
3. Cut off the ant's head. Be careful not to hurt anything else, don't smash any legs and don't crush any other body parts. If you don't get it right with the first try, try again on your next favorite ant.
4. Discard the head as neither you nor the ant can use it anymore.
5. Let go of the rest of the ant
The ant should now right itself and stand as if awaiting movement instructions.
Some fun experiments:
1. Blow gently on the ant. It should sway in the breeze but generally remain upright.
2. Flick (or blow harder on) the ant without smashing it so that it tumbles some distance. It will right itself and patiently await further instructions.
3. Place the ant on a piece of paper, wait for it to right itself and then flip the paper over. The ant should stay attached to the paper.
Ants are truly miniature engineering marvels.
Re:what awesome bodies we have (Score:2, Interesting)
For reference [discovermagazine.com]
Fastest walking human? (Score:3, Interesting)
Almost got it.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:hmm (Score:3, Interesting)
It would be interesting to see if people with a higher level of balance could do more while walking than people who were more clumsy.
Re:what awesome bodies we have (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Obvious? (Score:2, Interesting)
When walking down a path or on a sidewalk, have you ever found that the ground below your feet isn't there and you find yourself falling a bit in a panic-state (ie - adrenaline rush and fear)? This usually happens when you walk past a down step or gradient that you did not foresee.
You never think about it but your body is just reacting to the change and trying frantically to find a solid ground. Its not a truly conscious behavior until your body immediately tells your senses a semi-false signal that your falling.
Walking therefore is mostly an unconscious and reactive action that is learned from understanding the information that your body gives while performing the act.
Muscle Memory (Score:4, Interesting)
If you want to play an instrument and sing at the same time, or play two independent instruments at once (piano and especially organ are close enough to qualify, as is something like a Chapman Stick or Megatar), you have to rely on muscle memory that much more, as you now have twice as much to deal with. Doing all that and singing at the same time is more difficult still, and there are plenty of great musicians who never learn this particular stunt. The only way I can play and sing at the same time is to drill one or the other (usually the instrument) until I can do it by habit alone, then layer the other one over it and hope it holds together. Fortunately, woodwind players are not frequently asked to sing while playing, or to play two instruments at once, and if I do have to sing while playing, it's not really an independent act but part of coaxing a particular sound from the instrument.
As is the case with walking, the trick is to practice (a lot) and to accept that you will fall down (a lot) until you get the hang of it. Most of us just don't remember how hard we had to work to learn to walk. Some have to re-learn and could tell you how tough it is, and others still bear the scars of learning in infancy -- I have a scar in one eyebrow from falling into the edge of a table while still learning to walk (and a matching one in the other eyebrow, from learning to fight, but that is another story).
Mal-2
Re:what awesome bodies we have (Score:3, Interesting)
You can tell if you are doing the former if you trip when your foot catches something. The latter method is recommended for use by aged people due to the decrease in response time and hence increase risk of falling (falling having a higher risk of injury in the elderly due to weaker bones)
Re:Crawl before walk (Score:1, Interesting)
Typical of the BBC to report THIS robot as 'news' because they obviously know nothing about the Anybots robots...
http://www.anybots.com/abouttherobots.html [anybots.com]