September 27, 2011

Bipedal human-powered robot walks stably without drunkard-type stagger

by Gavril Mankoo

The world of robotics has progressed far from what the world’s first robot-makers probably imagined it to. However, even today, our little metal and plastic buddies haven’t learned to walk on two feet like the humans do, smooth and stable. Most robots today seem to stumble and walk unstably. Now a research group in the Combustion and Design Lab at Nagoya Institute of Technology unveiled a stable, bipedal, human-powered robot that could lend a hand to the robotics of the future. Using zig-zag flat rollers with a three-dimensional frame, with isosceles triangles connected in a zig-zag pattern, these triangular surfaces work as feet soles for the robot and the robot is able to walk stable without an unstable state, particularly when one foot is in the air and the weight is balanced out on a single foot. This development could find a useful place in prosthetics too!

[DigInfo]