Chairbot Walks You Around While You Sit

Gary writes "What do you get when you combine a robot and a chair? The Hubo FX-1 chairbot, of course. In what is perhaps my favorite robot design yet, this giant chair with legs looks like it came out of some ridiculous 80's sci-fi movie or something, but it's very, very real. HUBO FX-1 is two meters in height, and weighs 150 kg. The person sitting can control the robot easily using the built in joystick. Each ankle has a 3-axis force/torque sensor which measures the normal force and 2 moments. Each foot has an inclination sensor which measures the angle of the slope. Also, the rate gyro and the inclination sensor of the body allow the device to stabilize itself."

Protecting us

This thing will protect us from the terrible secret of space.

Pak Chooie Unf!

If you're gonna build a chairbot, do it right...

Chairbot is a great idea and all but its way too high off the ground to be useful in the office. If I built a chairbot, I'd do it right. It would have 8 legs and kinda crawl around like a spider, keeping you low to the ground. It would be so awesome.

Re:If you're gonna build a chairbot, do it right..

OK - but as Jay Leno would say - Are we really getting THAT fat?

Re:If you're gonna build a chairbot, do it right..

Heh, that was my first thought: "Jesus, how soon before I see these things stomping around Wal-Mart?" I swear, I go there about five times a year, and every time it's like Bloated Freaks on Wheels week.

Not enough capacity

V2.0 will need to handle 2X or 3X the current device's 100kg payload if it is to sell in the U.S. The growing numbers of "enlarged" Americans that I see using those scooters is horrifying.

LipoBot

If we could hook up some Liposuction equipment to it, then use the extracted fat of the occupant as a fuel for the machine we'd really be getting somewhere. Their fat arses would actually be hauling them around. Ha!

LipoBot - Patent Pending.

Chairbot Mech moves 3/5/0

I'll take one with 6 Medium Lasers, an AC/20, a PPC-10, and an LRM-6 please.

Re:Chairbot Mech moves 3/5/0

not enough heat sinks for all that firepower, unless you plan on standing still Mr. Sitting-Duck Clan...

Payback

Payback's comin', Ballmer... walkin' slow.

Re:Payback

The first thought I had when I saw this article was 'At Soviet Microsoft, Chair throws you!' ;)

if I had a successful .com startup...

...I'd be ordering a couple. Just imagine doing job interviews in/on such a thing :D

Steve Ballmer Version

The Steve Ballmer version of this chair will automatically throw itself across the room. :)

It's a little large.

But if they can get it down to a more manageable size, chairs with legs will be great for people who are otherwise stuck in a wheelchair... it will make all kinds of places accessible to them that weren't previously.

Re:It's a little large.

The Ibot [ibotnow.com] is already available today. I did some development on it for a while and can tell you it's more comfortable than any powered device you've ever ridden. It can do stairs too.

May I be the first....

May I be the first to say, "Goliath Online". And just in time for SC2

Technical Paper

I found this interesting technical paper on the robot: Experimental Realization of Dynamic Walking for a Human-Riding Biped Robot, HUBO FX-1 [cmu.edu]. It has lots of pretty pictures and graphs and gets in to the control-system problems they had when they developed it. Each step runs through three different balance control strategies, which they outline in detail. It's almost enough information to build your own!

good timing

was considering taking up jogging but havent cause of all the running involved, this might be the push needed.

Ok, Dude,

Stephan Hawking NEEDS this thing. All it needs is a set of grasping hands on long arms so he can crush his enemies like Robo-Nixon. That would be so awesome. In any case, add some lasers and missiles and you've got a fully functional Gundam!

Re:One thought

Maybe so that paralegics and quadriplegics can use stairs like everyone else? A lighter and slimmer version would be a superior solution to using an electric wheelchair, provided it can be done sufficiently cheaply.

Hey, they have to start somewhere!

Re:One thought

Maybe so that paralegics and quadriplegics can use stairs like everyone else?

This was my first thought. Wheels are no good on rough and uneven terrain.

I just wonder WTF would buy a 2m tall 2 legged monstrosity, when 6 short legs would be much simpler to control and balance. This thing is rediculously impractical.

Then I read the end of TFA about soldiers on these things with chain guns and rpgs. My internal school boy nearly wet himself."Sure it may be a huge target on an inherently unstable pedal configuration with an inability to assume a prone position or find effective cover, but hey, it's a bit like a Mech!"

Wankers.

Re:One thought

I just wonder WTF would buy a 2m tall 2 legged monstrosity, when 6 short legs would be much simpler to control and balance. This thing is rediculously impractical.

Whenever a new design for a 2-legged robot shows up, people immediately complain about how impractical bipedalism is and that the problem can easily be solved with more legs. But if that were the case, if there were no advantage to bipedalism, then bipedal organisms would not have shown up at all, let alone numerous times in separate groups of animals through history.

Once the balance problem has been solved, bipedal robots will be as fast and agile as bipedal humans, dinosaurs (avian and non-), etc. And then Will Smith will have to save us all from them.

Re:One thought

If enough armor can be packed on it, the "mech" platform might be more effective in urban combat than tanks.

With no armour whatsoever, a few million nanobots that eat ammunition would be more effective than tanks, _and_ they'd be completely uneffected by the tripwires that are so easy to set up in urban environments. Not nearly as exciting though.

Re:One thought

The 'grey goo' solution. Drop them on enemy territory and slowly reduce the whole country to 'grey goo'.

Re:One thought

I've got a quad friend who'd buy one of these in a shot if they were cheap enough.

To go hiking in the hills, walking over dunes on the beach, all the things that wheels aren't really suitable for.

Toyota

Why?

Because they saw the one Toyota made years ago [toyota.co.jp] and thought "neat"?