Thanksgiving Nostalgia: Robot Turkey Breeds Robot Dino
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Thursday, 27 of November , 2008 at 5:36 am
We generally don’t do much in the way of theme posts around here, but I figured I’d spend 30 seconds and see what I could come up with via a Google search for “robot turkey.” Skipping over a robotic decoy designed to catch poachers and a song named “Let’s Talk Turkey” by band Ima Robot (see a video here), I found a robotic walking turkey developed by MIT waaaaay back in 1994.
Named “Spring Turkey,” the robot was MIT’s first bipedal walker. The 2 foot tall bot was connected to a boom arm to control roll and yaw and reduce the problem of walking to fundamentals, specifically pitch and coordinated joint movement. Spring Turkey was used to test walking algorithms until 1996, when it was replaced with Spring Flamingo. Spring Flamingo added feet and active ankles to the mix, and it was able to handle ascending and descending ramps at higher speeds than Spring Turkey.
Now, remember how dinosaurs are descended from birds? MIT went a little bit backwards and used their experience with Spring Turkey and Spring Chicken and evolved those bird legs into some dino legs, in the form of Troody. Troody is a 18 inch tall, 4 foot long, 10 pound robodino (most of a robodino) that can walk by itself. This was a pretty big deal back in 2001, and it’s no small feat today, especially for a top heavy robot with such spindly little legs.
After the jump, check out a video of Spring Turkey and Spring Flamingo doing their walking thing back in the day, and accompany Troody on its first field trip.
[ Spring Turkey ]
[ Spring Flamingo @ Yobotics ]
[ Troody ]
Comments (6)
Category: Research
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Comment by Melissa
Made Thursday, 27 of November , 2008 at 1:48 pm
I wish I had the job of robot bludgeoner.
Comment by Ironman
Made Thursday, 27 of November , 2008 at 2:41 pm
i fell asleep watching troody. That was unnecessarily long.
Comment by Evan Ackerman
Made Friday, 28 of November , 2008 at 12:53 am
Aw, you think so? I thought the epic journey to find Cog was, well, epic. And cute.
Comment by bla
Made Saturday, 29 of November , 2008 at 1:58 pm
Troody (2000-2001) Not surprising for something that walks like a sick dog (just joking still find this pretty cool)
Comment by Saul Wall (The Snake Oil Baron)
Made Friday, 5 of December , 2008 at 6:22 pm
Trudy and Cog. BFF
I think Trudy needs a gun turret, a gas powered engine and the ability to kick and claw while jumping 16 feet through the air (and Cog needs a system of factories under his control, designed to build and repair Trudy units) but this is a good start.
Comment by cheap lasix
Made Monday, 30 of January , 2012 at 9:25 pm
Hio yout blog is really helpful in my research.
