This is one impressive robot. Watch it in action on this video at You Tube. Sure, it can not run uphill or withstand a push greater than a human’s, but it is hard to not consider this a quantum leap (no pun intended) in bipedal robots. Toyota is known for building quality automobiles and not so much for robots. However, they have now demonstrated that their robotics technology is also at the cutting edge. Read more in the article from Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.
Video Credit: Toyota
Toyota’s most recent humanoid robot prototype (one of many partner robots the automotive giant is developing) stands 130cm tall and weighs 50Kgr. Its legs have 7 degrees of freedom and it can run at an average speed of 7 km/h. In contrast, ASIMO’s maximum speed is 6km/h. The Toyota researchers had to develop new real-time methods for balance control. These methods make it possible for the robot to remain balanced when an external force such as a push from a human is applied when in motion.
The below video from Toyota demonstrates the running capabilities of the new humanoid robot. The robot takes a step every 340ms and has no contact with the ground for 100ms of that. Notice in the video how the robot remains balanced even after pushed by the human.
Toyota’s running humanoid robot
Awesom-o ([email protected])
Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:52:00 GMT
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