Distance Record Broken For a Walking Robot

Narrative Fallacy writes "The Cornell Ranger robot has set an unofficial world distance record by walking nonstop for 45 laps — a little over 9 kilometers — around the Barton Hall running track in an event to to show off the machine's energy efficiency. Unlike other walking robots that use motors to control every movement, the Ranger emulates human walking, using gravity to help swing its legs forward. The Robot alternately swings two outside legs forward and then two inside ones and although the robot has no knees, it has feet that can be tipped up and down, so that the robot pushes off with its toes, then tilts its feet upward to land on the heels as it brings its legs forward. The Robot is steered by a hobby remote control which biases the steering to one side or another by lifting one of the four feet slightly. 'We've just moved into this world of electromechanical devices, and to make something this robust is a big achievement,' said Andy Ruina, Cornell professor of theoretical and applied mechanics. 'We've learned tons about what it takes to make walking work.'"

DYI with Tinkertoys

Excellent achievement.

Of course, this is just the latest of Cornell's long standing reseach into passive dynamic walking. If anyone wants to build something like it yourself, hit the wayback machine to 1998.

It might wobble and stagger, but Cornell's headless robot is providing insights into how humans walk [cornell.edu]

J Wolfgang Goerlich

9 km?

If one of these would become sentient and try to kill me, I should still be able to out-walk it, then. I just hope they don't make any better models :(

Re:9 km?

Black people can do all those things, but were still kept slaves for hundreds of years.

Obligatory

I, for one, welcome our record distance walking robots overlords.

Wouldn't a video be nice?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZL7WJjNvzk

Oh, and what happened to the forms where I used to be able to sign in while making a comment? I can't anymore? Screw it.

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Most...boring...video...ever...

This is very interesting

Lots of people don't realize the inherent instability of walking. It's basically controlled/broken falling. You lift up your foot to move it and shift your center of gravity in front of your stationary foot, and start to fall forward. But your other foot comes down and stops your fall.

Running is actually an easier movement to emulate, interestingly.

This robot, and all other bipedal robots, isn't really useful. It's a horrible way to move - especially if you have wheels. But it's interesting to be able to see the dynamics of how humans walk, which might help us make better prosthetics and the like.

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I'm going to ignore the second half of your comment.

Why do you say that bipedalism is more efficient? For a completely all-purpose robot (personal assistant?) that needs to scale mountains... I might be able to get behind that.

But most robots are confined

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Stairs.

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With the exception of multi-story homes, most places you'd want a personal robot to go are handicap-accessible. Just make a robot use ramps and elevators instead of stairs.

Re:This is very interesting

But humans aren't actually bipedal when they climb mountains. When on a really steep slope you need to use your hands.


Wheels are way more efficient than legs on flat surfaces, which is why bikes exist. legs are great for lumpy surfaces, but they need to be proper legs, like on Big Dog, not the stupid sticks on this thing. I think people need to distinguish between 'real' walking robots that can wlak over anything and stupid wobble-bots like this that can only shuffle along on smooth surfaces. Take this fucker out onto a grass track outside, and then lets see how efficient it is.

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Feel free to ignore the second part. The success of bipedalism is evident in humans, four legged animals are obviously faster so human hunters can't compete in that way. But bipedal humans are able to maintain consistent speed for a long periods of time w

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I hate to point this out, but if you're standing in a pot-hole, you are lower than you'd be standing on the road around it. While it's true you only have to shift your weight to the foot outside the pothole, unless you plan to spend the rest of the day wal

Quite an achievement, yet...

First, I think it's cool they're working on this. Too often laboratory technology only works well enough to make a cool 10 second video clip, and 5.6 miles is substantially longer than that. As research, I do think this could help shed light on how anima

Re:Quite an achievement, yet...

I can beat that, I got a Vehicle that can go for miles, it runs on biofuel, that (if available) it can locate and gather itself whenever it stops, and it never needs parts and can repair minor damage itself. It is self guiding once familiarised with the route and automaticly follows roads, it automaticly detects dangerous terrain and will automaticly retreat from attackers. It can achive both reasonably fast speeds on the flat and navigate over rough and muddy terrain. It is fully recyclable and it is relatively easy to manufacture new ones from 2 existing models. It can carry up to 2 passengers and luggage, or can carry a larger amount of luggage. It can also pull another vehicle behind it and it can also work in a team to pull large vehicles. It's only drawback is it needs a human to guide it on any Journeys.

It's called a Horse.

You can also get other great vehicles in the 'Animals' range, there's a specialised desert vehicle, (Camel), off road luggage and passenger carrier (Donkey and Mule), and a compact highly adaptable model adaptable for combat, intruder detection, search and rescue, headspace analysis, and home entertainment (Dog).

Re:Quite an achievement, yet...

It's called a Horse.

Anyone who has ever worked around a stable will tell you that a horse is not a low maintenance vehicle.

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neither is the horse a long range or endurance vehicle.

the horse maxes out at 25 miles a day.

the Pony Express rider changed horses every 10 to 15 miles - an insanely expensive proposition even in the 1850s.

Re:Quite an achievement, yet...

It's called a Horse.

Anyone who has ever worked around a stable will tell you that a horse is not a low maintenance vehicle.

Tell me about it. Finding replacement parts for a '92 Clydesdale is damn near impossible.

Oh, wonderful

Not only are the machines hell-bent on killing us [slashdot.org] but now they can chase us down for 9km without a break.

Anyone know where I can buy EMP bombs?

I want to see a Convincing Bipedal Walk

...in a human-size robot. We've already seen the amazing Big Dog [youtube.com] from Boston Dynamics. How long before we see a human-sized bipedal robot that walks in a fairly human way? This record breaking walking robot just doesn't have the "ooo" factor that Big Dog h

Different walking robot

Here's a video of a different walking robot, BigDog. It seems alive - it can be kicked, walks on ice (where it stumbles
just like an animal), jumps, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww [youtube.com]

It's scary to imagine the thing with a turret on its head, tho

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uh.... wrong article perhaps?

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Good luck with that.

Can't even keep Google Vans out of our driveways.

How many laps must a robot walk down...

...before you call him an overlord?

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After looking at the website and the repetitive color scheme, I understand his "sa-shay-ing" into his office.

I think it would be more efficient and less amusing to coworkers if I simply walked into my office.