Anyone remember Honda’s ASIMO robot? It walked on two legs, did bipedal dances, and was even featured in some of Honda’s commercials. Toyota also has had a robot in development, but theirs has balance control (versus the elements and versus other real world obstacles; such as someone pushing it) and it runs! (At about an average of 7 km/hour to be exact) Our human nature to anthropomorphize is obvious in these examples, given the number of robots that walk/run on two feet these days, but I think this is quite a breakthrough. Unsure what they are in development for, perhaps unmanned adventures, or unmanned missions that are deemed too dangerous for flesh and blood; nonetheless this is pretty nifty!
I was talking with Jason earlier, we both think that the forwards/backwards stabilization is awesome, but lateral balance is probably not as good. I don’t see the legs taking a wider stance if it were to be nudged from the side. Alas, this balance is very very cool! Without further ado, the almighty video:
Originally submitted by Jason, from http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/31/toyotas-humanoid-robot-was-born-to-run/
