Ever since humanity has grasped the idea of a robot, we’ve wanted to imagine them into walking humanoid form. But making a robot walk like a human is not an easy task, and even the best of them end up with the somewhat shuffling gait of a Honda Asimo rather than the graceful poise of a balerina. Only in recent years have walking robots appeared to come of age, and then not by mimicking the human gait but something more akin to a bird.
We’ve seen it in the Boston Dynamics models, and also now in a self-balancing two-legged robot developed at Oregon State University that has demonstrated its abilities by completing an unaided 5 km run having used its machine learning skills to teach itself to run from scratch. It’s believed to be the first time a robot has achieved such a feat without first being programmed for the specific task.
The university’s PR piece envisages a time in which walking robots of this type have become commonplace, and when humans interact with them on a daily basis. We can certainly see that they could perform a huge number of autonomous outdoor tasks that perhaps a wheeled robot might find to be difficult, so maybe they have a bright future. Decide for yourself, after watching the video below the break.
That’s not running.
You are correct, it’s not running because running require both feet to be in the air at some point. This is speed walking at best.
no doubt it will soon. And then jump. And then be able to do it while dealing with the recoil of a machine gun. And operate in swarms. And work together with drones. And one day one group will hack the control of such a swarm, and turn it against civilians or the entity operating the swarm.
I know, It´s a bit off-topic and for sure there are a tons of civilian uses for such technology, even kawai, playful ones. But it would be … burying the head in the sand… to ignore military use of such tech.
While not yet AI-enabled, independant drones moving in swarm, pre-programmed swarms are trained by armies worldwide and first -apparently only,- have been used in the “battlefield”:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-apparent-world-first-idf-deployed-drone-swarms-in-gaza-fighting/
We´re able to regulate somehow nuclear weapons technology, but the resources needed to build and deploy drone swarms and autonomous weaponized robots are far lower and democratize at fast speed. And much less noticeable than nuclear power plants.
So, what will we civilians do and when will be start to regulate weaponized, autonomous robots ? How long will we continue to play the ostrich ?
The low cost of drone technology is what scares me, countries like Turkey have automated swarms that can actually take the decision to fire on live targets.
What does “take the decision to fire on live targets” mean? Take from whom?
Guided missiles have been around for a long time now, including guided missiles which can find their target where there are EM countermeasures (i.e. outside control is jammed).
It is for my fat ass
Am I the only one getting a Forrest Gump vibe ?
Actually, I was getting a bit of ED 209 vibe. Maybe ED 209 meets Forrest Gump vibe (that could be an interesting movie).
OSU student here. Why am I always off campus when they’re testing these? :(
On the bright side, anyone from the public can walk in and look at the lab where Cassie was originally developed. They still have a prototype there, along with some other neat robots.
I’m impressed, though I was expecting to see the robot ”run” in a field of other competitors. Perhaps future Evies will be bipedal and not for wheeled :)
Wonder why they didn’t take it cross-country. Uneven ground would have been a much more interesting test.
“The university’s PR piece envisages a time in which walking robots of this type have become commonplace, and when humans interact with them on a daily basis. ”
I’ Robot covered this when the robot runs for the woman’s inhaler.
I get the feeling that a stack of kids in a trench coat are going to win a marathon soon.
Lol
We’re already having trouble keeping the gender thing straight (lol) in the Olympics. So this might not be far off.
I bet she would’ve run faster if they cheered for her ;)
Well there is only one plantigrade bipedal species but lots of digitigrade bipedal species on the planet, maybe digitigrade is the way to go with robots. Anyway it’s interesting. Here’s another video I think relates to this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lCI63H1neY
It would have cost them almost nothing to mount a cardboard AT-ST body on it, but they let that opportunity go.
I’ve got some good news for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5agZrkUifDs
Can’t wait when it will hunt me in the woods, with strapped modern M60 analog.
The only vibe I get is Black Mirror – Metal head
*ballerina :p
It’s cool, but the only advantage over a wheeled robot would be the ability to go up steps and perhaps hop over obstacles. One step at a time?
So the ONLY advantage is that is can go where humans go and a wheeled robot can’t? Oh no.
This problem is so old there are even greeting cards about it!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Birthday-Greeting-WDM0223-Daleks-Stairs/dp/B005MSISM2
Now I finally understand the reason for those Japanese combining robots. Just need to find someone else’s robot torso and talking head.
“and I’ll form the head”…
Next step, compete in a real 5K against humans!
Needs some Nike’s!
Flexible feet are an important part of locomotion. Look at how complex animal feet are. It’ll be fascinating to see how robotic feet evolve.
Killing humans isn’t useful.
Killing in self defense is useful and sometimes necessary.
Robot self defense? Is that what you meant?
I’m really happy that I live in a first world country without the obviously constant need to defend myself with deadly force.
Maybe some time you’ll get there, too!
What are the applications where this will be better than wheels!
Legs are better than wheels everywhere except on a prepared flat surface. There are no wheels in nature because nature didn’t see fit to create the paved road until pretty recently.
Whenever you state a broad generality you are almost certainly wrong… there are plenty of places that legs are ill suited that are unprepared terrain where wheels can do better than legs.
Uh-huh, and I’m sure you’ll present a Chryslersaurus to demonstrate that, or will it be a Wheelephant?
…. and the examples are? And before you suggest mountain biking, do note that this is generally not on unprepared terrain but on use hardened paths. As an aside I’ve always wondered why it’s actually called mountain biking. In addition, I wonder whether you have ever tried pushing a wheelchair in the countryside? Even on a footpath.
at around 1:05 there was some text indicating the robots could do warehousing and running errands to enable humans to lead more productive lives at home and work.
That statement I would suspect was written by someone that hasn’t lived for more than 1/4 of a century and is yet to have a job.
I can see them rejoicing at been constrained to their cubicle because there is no need to leave their seat any more – keep codeing boy I own you for 8 hours a day and now there is no need for you to leave your desk to meander around the office to collect some stuff from the other side.
heres another product to repair your mechanical assistant will take it to the mail room – dont let the idea of doing something other than your primary objective get you excited.
All the while all the people that used to work at Amazon are sitting at home in front of the TV growing larger by the minute because they dont even need to go to fridge for another Twinky (or where ever you are supposed to keep them, whatever they are) Im getting a vision of the humans aboard the spaceship in WALL E. just lumps of lard with NO meaningful purpose because the robot servant takes care of all the “meaningless” tasks.
Probably a greater threat than a swarm of angry drones from a hostile state…..
Note that this robot is blind, depending entirely on balance, reactions and learning. The video of it walking on rough terrain is even more impressive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPhEmC6b6XU
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2105.08328.pdf
Very impressive that it taught itself to run using reinforcement learning. Goes to show overcoming the reality gap is possible (can’t imagine it was all done live).
Wonder what they were optimizing? I mean, what was it running to? It has no beak so would not have been a nice big pile of seed.
It’s good to see Cassie migrating from programmatically controlled movements to AI based. And despite not having any competitors running along side it, certainly winning a race of sorts by going for an AI run, well before many other contenders have turned up. Awesome work!
Great, the next thing we’ll have is this robot bragging about running a 5K on its Facebook page.
Cassie?
Be wary of the cassowary lest it make a casserole out of your guts! Now lets scale this up to the giant moa birds. Drumsticks a meter long!
Run! Maybe.