Servo - January 2013

Then

and

NOW

Robots Evolve into Today's Bipedal Humanoids by Tom Carroll Just as man's ancestors began to walk on two legs, robot experimenters decided over a decade ago that a bipedal humanoid robot was the holy grail of robotics. Science fiction movies always showed robots as two-legged walking creations. Of course, before computer graphics imaging, movie producers had to use human actors in robot suits to portray robots on the screen. The earliest bipedal robots used a shuffling gait wherein each of the robot's feet never left the floor, but just slid on one foot and then the next. Another walking method used two "U" shaped feet that always kept the robot's center-of-gravity supported. Once the advanced walking and balance mechanics were solved and gyros and accelerometers dropped in cost, the sky became the limit for experimental humanoid robots.

FIGURE 1. Vision of a DARPA robotics challenge.

DARPA Promotes Humanoid Robot Development

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (or DARPA) has long been in the forefront of advanced robotics development. Hang a couple of million dollars of incentive in front of any talented group, and creative juices begin to flow. After the successes of its several autonomous full-sized Grand Challenge road vehicle contests, DARPA has now turned to the development of life-sized humanoids.

The DARPA Robotics Challenge (or DRC) requires that the contestant’s entries drive a standard human-sized

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utility vehicle, travel across and through rubble, open and close standard human doors, manipulate power tools to break through concrete, locate and replace a large water pump, and even climb ladders. The goal is not to prove that robots can do the same things that humans can, but to advance robotics technology to the point that humans can be spared the inherent dangers incurred in future disaster scenarios.

Figure 1 shows an imagined scenario from Electronics Products Magazine of two robots cleaning up a disaster situation. The green stuff pouring down is just a visual image of some of the hazards that clean-up teams face when responding to disasters. Radiation, toxic materials,