Comment Walking vs running (Score 1) 207
I lost track of the comment, but someone said they had seen a one-legged robot hopping and balancing.
In the late 1980s, Marc Raibert's Leg Lab had robots with one, two, and four legs which hopped, ran, and did somersaults. One of the things I worked on there was the idea that if you build the robot correctly, you need less control... actually, inspired by weebles wobbling (someone else's post about "prior art") it turns out that you don't need any computer to make a one-legged robot hop stably. I even whacked it with a stick, and it didn't fall over.
But this, this is a different thing. This robot as reacting in a way which is remarkably like what I would expect of a human. I liked the point where it widened its stance - that is impressive, because it had to decide that it was a good idea, and then do it despite the force being applied.
In the late 1980s, Marc Raibert's Leg Lab had robots with one, two, and four legs which hopped, ran, and did somersaults. One of the things I worked on there was the idea that if you build the robot correctly, you need less control... actually, inspired by weebles wobbling (someone else's post about "prior art") it turns out that you don't need any computer to make a one-legged robot hop stably. I even whacked it with a stick, and it didn't fall over.
But this, this is a different thing. This robot as reacting in a way which is remarkably like what I would expect of a human. I liked the point where it widened its stance - that is impressive, because it had to decide that it was a good idea, and then do it despite the force being applied.
