Robots Learn to Walk Like Humans

Robots that walk like humans - that familiar staple of science fiction films - have been developed for real by scientists in the US and Holland. Robot (BBC) The batteries are in the arms Three bipedal designs, each built by a different research group, use the same principle to achieve their human-like gait. One even adapts its stride to changing terrain. Long considered a holy grail of robotics, getting machines to walk like people has proven notoriously difficult to achieve. Details were announced on Thursday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Washington DC. Though machines like those in the film I Robot are still a long way off, robots using this method of walking could have uses in dangerous space missions or in cleaning up nuclear and toxic waste. The work could transform the way humanoid robots are built and brings the prospect of robotic replacement limbs a step closer. In other humanoid walking robots, such as Honda's Asimo, motors control much of the movement. The new machines have less control over their movement and use up less energy than "mainstream" robots, yet they walk in a more human-like manner. Buckethead Two of the machines, developed at Cornell University in the US and Delft University in Holland respectively, are built in a very similar way. But while the Cornell robot is powered by batteries in its arms, the Delft robot uses gas canisters in an attempt to mimic human muscles. It has an empty bucket for a head, to emphasise that it uses no intelligence. The third robot, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has been nicknamed the Toddler on account of its walking style. It uses neural networks to learn - adapting its movement according to the terrain it is on. It is about 43cm tall, weighs 2.8kg and has curved feet that look like clogs. "For the first time, we've demonstrated a robot that learns how to walk without anything in its control system that tells it how to," said Russ Tendrake of the cognitive and brain sciences department at MIT. "It learns how to walk in about 20 minutes from a blank slate and adjusts itself with every step." The Toddler transfers its weight from one foot to the other until it gains enough energy to start walking forward. It can start, stop, steer and walk backwards. The research could have much to tell us about the way humans walk: it suggests passive dynamic movement plays a key role in human locomotion. [BBC News]