LONDON: A two-legged robot that can keep its balance and walk in an outdoor field, full of lumps, bumps and uneven terrain, is three times more energy-efficient than any other human-sized bipedal robot, scientists say, Zee News reports.
Researchers at Oregon State University last week successfully field-tested for the first time the locomotion abilities of the two-legged robot with technology that they believe heralds the running robots of the future.
The test demonstrated that their ‘ATRIAS’ robot can move quite nicely, keep its balance and withstand mild blows from a bouncing rubber ball, while taking a walk in the grass, up and down hill and over varying terrain at a normal walking speed of a little more than three miles per hour. As a bipedal robot that was biologically inspired to mimic the spring-legged action of animals, the researchers said this is the closest a machine has yet come to resembling human locomotion.
The human-sized robot had six electric motors powered by a lithium polymer battery about the size of a half-gallon of milk, which is substantially smaller than the power packs of some other mobile robots.
This is made possible by the energy efficiency of its elastic leg design and the energy retention that’s natural to animal movement.
Tesla driverless system to use updated radar technology
WASHINGTON: Electric carmaker Tesla announced Sunday it was upgrading its Autopilot software to use more advanced radar technology. In a...
