{"id":820,"date":"2008-03-24T11:40:30","date_gmt":"2008-03-24T11:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2008\/03\/24\/one-of-the-best-walking-robot-demos-ive-ever-seen\/"},"modified":"2008-03-24T11:40:30","modified_gmt":"2008-03-24T11:40:30","slug":"one-of-the-best-walking-robot-demos-ive-ever-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2008\/03\/24\/one-of-the-best-walking-robot-demos-ive-ever-seen\/","title":{"rendered":"One of the best walking robot demos I&#8217;ve ever seen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"355\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/W1czBcnX1Ww\"><\/param><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n<p>Wow &#8211; this is quite amazing.  About mid-way through Big Dog (a defense project from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bostondynamics.com\/content\/sec.php?section=BigDog\">Boston Dynamics<\/a>) slips on some glaze ice and recovers without actually falling down, which involves some super cool real-time responses.  The video is long-ish, but definitely worth the investment.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d love to know what the burn out rate for the joints and motors are.  One of the amazing things about biological organisms is that we can balance muscles against each other to hold a position without wearing ourselves out.  Many walking robots, on the other hand, end up exerting so much force in simply maintaining their position that they tend to burn out key components really quickly.  Given the responses and forces involved in Big Dog&#8217;s movement and balance, you&#8217;d think they&#8217;d have this problem in spades.  If these trials go on for any length of time, however, they presumably managed to handle this to some degree.  Their web site says &#8220;BigDog&#8217;s legs are articulated like an animal\u2019s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next.&#8221;; the idea of recycling energy back into the motion (use it instead of fight it) certainly looks promising.<\/p>\n<p>The research is being funded by DoD money, with the hope that robots like this could help carry material in the field.  I could imagine nice civilian applications, however.  An infirm person in Morris, for example, might be capable of walking to the grocery store, but not capable of carrying a shopping load home.  A smaller, electric version of this could be a nice alternative to cars in that situation.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Sub-Evil for the pointer!<\/p>\n\n\t<div class=\"st-post-tags \">\n\tTags: <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/artificial-intelligence\/\" title=\"artificial intelligence\">artificial intelligence<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/locomotion\/\" title=\"locomotion\">locomotion<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/robotics\/\" title=\"robotics\">robotics<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/science\/\" title=\"Science\">Science<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/video\/\" title=\"Video\">Video<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/tag\/walking\/\" title=\"walking\">walking<\/a><br \/><\/div>\n\n\n\t<h4>Related posts<\/h4>\n\t<ul class=\"st-related-posts\">\n\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2008\/09\/11\/you-have-to-either-laugh-or-cry-and-ill-help-you-do-both\/\" title=\"You have to either laugh or cry (and I&#8217;ll help you do both) (11 Sep 08)\">You have to either laugh or cry (and I&#8217;ll help you do both)<\/a> (0)<\/li>\n\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2008\/03\/09\/so-so-cool-looking-but-i-cant-play-yet\/\" title=\"So, so cool looking &#8212; but I can&#8217;t play yet! (9 Mar 08)\">So, so cool looking &#8212; but I can&#8217;t play yet!<\/a> (3)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wow &#8211; this is quite amazing. About mid-way through Big Dog (a defense project from Boston Dynamics) slips on some glaze ice and recovers without actually falling down, which involves some super cool real-time responses. The video is long-ish, but definitely worth the investment. I&#8217;d love to know what the burn out rate for the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2008\/03\/24\/one-of-the-best-walking-robot-demos-ive-ever-seen\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;One of the best walking robot demos I&#8217;ve ever seen&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0},"categories":[4,12,15,28],"tags":[218,293,292,866,876,294],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p90sy-de","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":707,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/11\/18\/almost-to-sweden-but-then-not\/","url_meta":{"origin":820,"position":0},"title":"Almost to Sweden, but then not","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"18 Nov 07","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Research&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Research","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/computing\/research\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":646,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/09\/11\/think-of-how-many-calories-we-must-be-throwing-away\/","url_meta":{"origin":820,"position":1},"title":"Think of how many calories we must be throwing away","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"11 Sep 07","format":false,"excerpt":"Walking home from the office today, I was listening to a Scientific American podcast Putting Food On The Table: What To Eat (go to sciam.com\/podcast\/ for their full set of podcasts), featuring an interview with the appropriately (or ironically - is irony dead?) Marion Nestle, author of the book \"What\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Education&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":485,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/02\/23\/science-at-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":820,"position":2},"title":"Science at work","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"23 Feb 07","format":false,"excerpt":"Science at work, originally uploaded by Unhindered by Talent. For his 7th grade science project, Sub-Evil Boy studied the effect of different kinds of wrapping (foil, wax paper, etc.) on protecting slices of bread from freezer burn. One of my parental roles was to take photos that he could use\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Education&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":747,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/12\/13\/no-i-really-do-think-we-need-a-science-debate\/","url_meta":{"origin":820,"position":3},"title":"No, I really do think we need a science debate","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"13 Dec 07","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I posted a somewhat knee-jerk vote in favor of the idea of a science debate. Poking a little at the enormous lists of blog posts on this topic that A Blog Around The Clock has collected, one finds that while most people are definitely in favor, some people aren't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1273,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2010\/05\/12\/we-invest-in-research-but-what-about-teaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":820,"position":4},"title":"We invest in research, but what about teaching?","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"12 May 10","format":false,"excerpt":"From a nice piece by Vikram Savkar at ScienceProgress.org entitled \"We invest in research, but what about teaching?\": Since President Obama\u2019s announcement of the Educate to Innovate program in November 2009, an encouraging number of technology and media companies, non-profit organizations and government agencies have been working in concert to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Education&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2005\/02\/23\/does-your-car-run-on-turkey-innards\/","url_meta":{"origin":820,"position":5},"title":"Does your car run on turkey innards?","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"23 Feb 05","format":false,"excerpt":"Changing Worlds Technologies is making diesel out of turkey guts and other waste products. They use a process that is somewhat like an accelerated version of how nature makes petroleum products out of organic waste. Their claim is that this is a wonderful way to generate badly needed fuels out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Environment&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Environment","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/science\/environment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}