Shiny Doom Forum

[Trool]

Sony just build a new bipedal walker that can slowly jog. It's pretty impressive.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3330183.stm
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The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, isn't 'Eureka!' but rather 'hmm....that's funny.'

--Isaac Asimov

[Katrina]

Wow... that's pretty neat. It's interesting how they got the robot the have both feet off the ground and not fall over or anything. I also like the way the robot did the little fan dance for its demonstation.
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Check it out! I finally remembered my login for this account. I can do crazy things like put text in my signature and change my avatar so it doesn't say NaNoWriMo 2005.

[fate]

Hmm... guess my original response to this was deleted or never got put up...
I was commenting that although this robot is impressive I think the japanese have made only a large improvement in terms of the dynamics and kinematic analysis of the movement as opposed to improving the physical model of the robot. I guess they did have to improve the actuators required to make this thing leave the ground while asimo could not.
I'm not 100% sure but I don't think it is physically possible for asimo to leave the ground completely in it's current configuration. The amount of power to accelerate him is too high I think. Because he's way too heavy. The power to weight ratio is way too low.
I Think what sony did was to increase the power to weight ratio by shrinking the robot and also to do a ton of dynamics analysis to figure out exactly the control parameters that allows it to balance and jump and run...etc.
It seems to me that what we really need is a new generation of robots. I still think the japanese robots are a lower generation of robots than the americans although they are comming really from two sides of the spectrum. I think there is more promise on the american's side though and I think the japanes needs to start incorporating the american robotics technique with their own and I think this would create a more human robot.
I think mainly the reason I think that the american's way of doing it is better is that we really don't do the tons of calculations in our heads that the japanese ones do in order to make a jump or a step. The american ones work cause their design is good and kinda fixes it's own balance and stuff just due to it's design.
So although this sony robot is cool, I don't see any huge improvement over asimo.
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People's whole lives do pass before their eyes before they die. The process is called living.

Most of the time its easier to get along with people before you get to know them.

[rklee]

Sorry a few of my posts ended up under Fate because she used my laptop over break and it was saved under her account. That last post was mine.
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"My Heart Is In the Work" - Andrew Carnegie