Robot Does The Shuffle To Turn Itself Around, That’s What It’s All About
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 27 of November , 2007 at 6:31 am
Bipedal robots are getting fairly good at walking in straight lines, but changing direction is another matter. In order to turn in place, most bipedal robots do an awkward sort of rapid bouncing between one foot and another to slowly rotate, which requires a lot of balance and is a waste of energy. This little 50cm tall robot, developed by Masano Koeda of Ritsumeikan University, is able to perform a maneuver called the “Koeda shuffle,” rotating at the hips and shifting its balance to smoothly turn 90 degrees while maintaining its center of gravity (which is how we humans do it). This enables the robot to turn in place while carrying a load, which is a necessary skill for any useful household bipedal humanoid. It’ll be even more useful after the robot figures out how to turn while on a slope, or on rough terrain, or while teaching you to do a passable waltz.
VIA [ Digital World Tokyo ]
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Category: Research
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