Man Walks With Aid of Brain-Controlled Robotic Legs

Man Walks With Aid of Brain-Controlled Robotic Legs: The new device... is controlled by electroencephalogram...
The test subject in the study wore such a cap while standing on a treadmill inside leg braces known as a “robotic gait orthosis.” The subject would imagine walking or standing, and the device was taught to associate each brain activity pattern with the appropriate action. Then, whenever those patterns were encountered, the braces would start or stop walking accordingly.
The researchers also measured leg muscle activity by electromyogram, or EMG, for three conditions: active walking (with the robotic braces powered off), cooperative walking (aided by the braces), and passive walking (with the leg braces making all the movements).

Custom Japanese Hobby Robot Somersaults with Servo Tentacles - IEEE Spectrum

Custom Japanese Hobby Robot Somersaults with Servo Tentacles - IEEE Spectrum: Straight from Japan comes this robot called "Metallic Vaio 2012," which has a style of locomotion that we've never seen before. Instead of using arms or legs, it's got a sort of combination of both: two long tentacles made out of chains of servos that it uses to crawl around and rapidly somersault from place to place...
Besides its name, we know that it apparently has 18 degrees of freedom...

Get Ready to Kickstart Project Hexapod

Get Ready to Kickstart Project Hexapod: Meet Stompy. He’s a hexapod – a six-legged robot being built by a team of 15 students and three instructors at Artisan’s Asylum in Somerville, Massachusetts. And if the rendering above didn’t tip you off, Stompy holds two passengers, can walk over a car and takes up nearly two lanes of road...

Said legs are force controlled through hydraulics, with a computer running real-time Linux and manipulating 18 hydraulic actuators. “Think of it as six excavators tied together,” Cavalcanti said.

HRP-4C female robot has a new walk (w/ video)

HRP-4C female robot has a new walk (w/ video): The AIST researchers focused on a few key areas of the robot to improve results. The robot’s toes now support the legs better during each stride, and the legs straighten out more...
The authors explain that in working up a model of a walking pattern imitating human motion their focus was placed on three characteristics of walking: single toe support, knee stretching, and swing leg motion.

One Per Cent: BigDog robot gets an even bigger brother

One Per Cent: BigDog robot gets an even bigger brother: Part of BigDog's appeal is its uncanny ability to balance itself. AlphaDog is no different, but whereas BigDog can be upset by a stiff kick to the side, it takes the best efforts of two adults to knock AlphaDog off its game.

It also boasts some new innovations, such as a rounded body frame that allows it to right itself if it tips over and it could potentially be outfitted with a robotic arm where its head would be.

KURMET Bipedal Robot Can Hop Over Obstacles - IEEE Spectrum

KURMET Bipedal Robot Can Hop Over Obstacles - IEEE Spectrum: "The robot learns how to jump through a training process, not by remembering rules, so there isn't always a precisely pre-defined action that it's required to take based on given inputs, which is why it's called a fuzzy control system."

Robot walks a 40.5-mile ultramarathon without recharge (w/ video)

Robot walks a 40.5-mile ultramarathon without recharge (w/ video): The overall goal of the National Science Foundation-funded research project is to understand walking by reinventing it, Ruina said...
While most legged robots achieve stability by carefully controlling all of the joint angles in their bodies, Ranger achieves its low energy use by, as much as possible, letting the legs swing as they will, Ruina explained. Also, most bipedal robots stand on flat feet. Ranger can't stand upright at all; instead, it balances by falling and catching itself at each step. The trick is to make the catch at the right time and place.

Evolutionary robotics: for robust robots, let them be babies first | KurzweilAI

Evolutionary robotics: for robust robots, let them be babies first | KurzweilAI: Using a sophisticated computer simulation, Bongard unleashed a series of synthetic beasts that move about in a 3-dimensional space. “It looks like a modern video game,” he says. Each creature — or, rather, generations of the creatures — then run a software routine, called a genetic algorithm, that experiments with various motions until it develops a slither, shuffle, or walking gait — based on its body plan — that can get it to the light source without tipping over.
“The robots have 12 moving parts,” Bongard says. “They look like the simplified skeleton of a mammal: it’s got a jointed spine and then you have four sticks — the legs — sticking out.”

Metamorphosis key to creating stable walking robots - tech - 10 January 2011 - New Scientist

Metamorphosis key to creating stable walking robots: "He found that the four-legged robot was stable when programmed to walk like any of the virtual bots that had metamorphosed with time. 'Metamorphosed robots were able to continue walking even if they were randomly pushed around,' he says. However, when the four-legged robot adopted the walking style of a virtual bot with a fixed body plan, it was far more prone to falling over when pushed. Bongard thinks that's because the morphed robots had to remain balanced and on course through many body plans, so the gait they finally adopted had greater stability."

Jumping beats moonwalking – for a virtual robot - space - 18 December 2010 - New Scientist

Jumping beats moonwalking – for a virtual robot: "Christopher MacLeod at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, UK, is intrigued by the idea of simulating how robots could move on the lunar surface. He uses genetic algorithms to evolve efficient gaits for robots on Earth.

He thinks that if such software is used to evolve the most efficient gait for lunar movement, the results might be quite different from those obtained using Earth's gravity. To move at speed on Earth, going down on all fours and travelling like a chimp provides more power and greater stability than running on two legs – but on the moon that may not apply, he says."

Video: Shorts-Wearing Japanese Sprinter-Bot Runs Like a Human on Robotic Legs | Popular Science

Video: Shorts-Wearing Japanese Sprinter-Bot Runs Like a Human on Robotic Legs | Popular Science: Zhang and co realised that there are naturally occurring materials that can do the same thing. Calcite is one of them. It is unusual because its optical properties depend on the direction that light passes through it.

By carefully exploiting this property, they've been able to create a block of calcite (actually two blocks of calcite) that acts like a carpet cloak. They've even demonstrated it by hiding a wedge of steel 38mm long and 2 mm high. Zhang and co say that this is the first time that a visible object has ever been cloaked

HRP-4: Athletic robot worker ::: Pink Tentacle

HRP-4: Athletic robot worker ::: Pink Tentacle: "At the unveiling on Wednesday, the agile robot demonstrated a range of skills that may come in handy in the workplace, such as the ability to stand on one foot, twist its waist, strike poses, follow spoken commands, recognize faces, and track objects by moving its head. Its five-fingered hands are also more dexterous than those of its predecessors.
Kawada and AIST plan to begin selling the robots to universities and research institutions in January 2011 at a starting price of 26 million yen ($305,000) each."

Shape-shifting robot compensates for damaged limb - tech - 01 September 2010 - New Scientist

Shape-shifting robot compensates for damaged limb: "In the simulation, each Roombot alters its pattern of movement randomly every few seconds and assesses how those changes affect the quadruped's overall velocity. After being given 10 minutes to find its feet, the quadruped had increased its speed from 5 centimetres per second to 31 cm/s.

When one Roombot was then made to malfunction – instantly slashing the walking speed to 15 cm/s – the quadruped learned to adapt its gait. After a further 20 minutes the hobbled robot had increased its walking speed to 21 cm/s."

Make: Online : Walking table

Make: Online : Walking table: ""Walking Table," as it is cleverly named, is human-powered, incorporating a mechanical linkage that converts gentle lifting and pushing of the top into oscillations of the legs that move the table across the floor with little effort."

DLR-Biped – Could These Be Justin’s Legs?

DLR-Biped – Could These Be Justin’s Legs?: "Like PETMAN and other biped prototypes it lacks a proper upper body, but is still rather tall given the legs are 90cm (3′) from hip to sole. In total it measures approximately 143cm (4’8″) and weighs 50kg (110 lbs). Besides six-axis force torque sensors in each foot, and an inertial measurement system in the trunk, the 6 joints in each leg are torque controlled. The researchers say that this is a first for a biped robot and that it will allow them to implement compliant impedance control in the legs similar to Justin’s arms during manipulation tasks."

University of Michigan: Walking robot navigates bumpy ground

Video: Walking robot navigates bumpy ground - This early experiment was, for MABEL, the equivalent of walking confidently down a forest trail while talking to a friend—and not looking down to watch your steps.

"Humans rely on a keen sense of balance to pull this off," Grizzle said. "The challenge for engineers is to design this ability into robots."