Think of it as one giant (biologically accurate) step for robot-kind.
Scientists at the University of Arizona yesterday published research on the development of a two-legged robot designed to accurately mimic the gait patterns of human beings.
It's impressive enough that the robot moves like a person, courtesy of motors that push-and-pull on artificial leg "muscles" made of kevlar straps. But the robots are also endowed with sensors (including load sensors in the feet and on each muscle strap) and a computerized version of a specific human neural network, known as the central pattern generator (CPG), that stabilizes leg movement and allows humans to walk rhythmically.
Much like a human's CPG, found in the lower region of the spinal cord, this robotic system gathers information from the limbs -- how much strain is exerted on each muscle, the load pattern occurring on each foot -- to fire signals that dictate and control walking gait.
"This robot represents a complete physical, or 'neurobotic' model of the system," the researchers wrote in the Journal of Neural Engineering. "[Which demonstrates] the usefulness of this type of robotics research for investigating the neuropsychological processes underlying walking in humans and animals."
Indeed, the team hopes to harness the technology to learn more about how babies first learn to walk, and glean a greater understanding of the recovery process that can occur -- largely due to CPG stimulation -- among patients with spinal injuries.
The team plans to further enhance their walking-bot by adding visual and tactile sensors, according to a report from the AFP, which would give the robot an even more uncanny resemblance to its human counterparts. Most notably, the ability to recover after taking a spill.
Similar sensors are already being deployed in other, cutting-edge robot designs. Take AlphaDog, created by Boston Dynamics and funded by the Pentagon, as one example. The robot is endowed with visual sensors to follow a human leader, can tread (using four legs, of course, rather than two) over uneven terrain and can pick itself up after falling over.
But don't expect this walking-bot (which, from what I can glean, does not yet have a name) to follow AlphaDog into battle. Instead, scientists envision the robot -- in addition to its research applications -- being more of a caretaker than a warfighter.
"One of the ideas is that we build what I call soft robots, which can be used around human beings," Anthony Lewis, one of the robot's developers, told the AFP. "But conventional robots derive their heritage from industrial robots and they are very stiff -- they wouldn't be safe around grandma."
