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LittleDog Robot Has Dynamic Double-Support Gait
Boston Dynamics' LittleDog robot struts its stuff in the video below. Note the dynamic double-support gait - it can support itself on just two of its four legs.
(LittleDog robot navigates rough terrain)
The experimental setup includes overhead cameras that help LittleDog analyze the terrain and plan each step. The LittleDog system is actually learning to traverse these varied and rough surfaces by computing a "cost" for each step, which compares the distance moved versus the potential for a fall.
SF readers have been looking forward to this real-world development for almost sixty years, having read about the robass with "fast-plodding, articulated legs, so necessary since roads had degenerated" from Anthony Boucher's 1951 story The Quest For St. Aquin
Check out an earlier LittleDog "bounding gait" video. Via Botjunkie.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 9/10/2009)
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