Robots Hit Stride With Human Walk

[theHandpuppet]

I'm thinking robots might be a helluva lot more efficient with non-human locomotion, but what they hey...

Robots hit stride with human walk

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4275815.stm

By Paul Rincon
BBC News science reporter, in Washington DC


The latest robots that walk like humans - that familiar staple of science fiction films - have been demonstrated by scientists from the US and Holland.

Three bipedal designs, each built by a different research group, use the same principle to achieve a human-like gait.

Making machines walk like us has proven notoriously difficult to achieve.

The new designs were shown off at the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) annual meeting held this year in Washington DC.

Though machines like those in the film I, Robot are still a long way off, robots using this method of walking could have uses in dangerous space missions or in cleaning up nuclear and toxic waste.

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[dave123williams]

1. Great; soon, they'll be taking over. Didn't anyone ever read Asimov?

How many scifi cautionary tales about robots betraying us are there? And yet, people continue to make 'em...wild.