Thread: Running Robot Breaks Speed Records ~ All It Needs Is a Head

Running Robot Breaks Speed Records (Now All It Needs Is a Head)



Video: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/running-robot/
After three years of “training”, including broken limbs, the gold medal for “the world’s fastest bipedal robot with knees” is to be hung around the neck of a robot called MABEL.



The creation of a team of engineers at the University of Michigan, MABEL has just clocked a record of 6.8 miles per hour, but it’s been a tough training regime to get the robot from walking smoothly to running like a human.
She was originally built by Jessy Grizzle, a professor in the University’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Jonathan Hurst, who was then a doctoral student at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Doctoral students Koushil Sreenath and Hae-Won Park have since joined the project working on the feedback algorithms that allow MABEL to balance even when faced with uneven ground. The team says in a release that the robot “took its first jog” in July.

MABEL is designed to have almost a human physiology — her weight is distributed like a human’s namely she has a heavier torso and “light, flexible legs with springs that act like tendons”. Grizzle adds that MABEL is in the air for 40 percent of each stride, “like a real runner”. In other running robots, claims the team, this “flight phase” lasts for less than 10 percent of each step.
Hurst, who is now an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University, says that MABEL’s achievement could have implications for the development of human exoskeletons. He says: “We envision some extraordinary potential applications for legged robot research: exoskeletons that enable wheelchair-bound people to walk again or that give rescuers super-human abilities, and powered prosthetic limbs that behave like their biological counterparts.”
However, much like BigDog, MABEL could have a more immediate role as a robot rescuer. “The robotics community has been trying to come up with machines that can go places where humans can go, so a human morphology is important,” Grizzle said. “If you would like to send in robots to search for people when a house is on fire, it probably needs to be able to go up and down stairs, step over the baby’s toys on the floor, and manoeuvre in an environment where wheels and tracks may not be appropriate.”

Sreenath adds that robots designed like MABEL but able to carry humans could offer a new transport solution: “Imagine a future where you don’t have to first clear a path and build roads before a vehicle could move around,” he said, “but rather, we have a class of running machines like animals that could transport you around with no roads, but with a smooth and efficient ride.” That’s if you don’t see them coming and run the other way.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/running-robot/

See Also:

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• Video: Military’s Robotic Pack Mule Battles the Mud