Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Robot With Broken Leg Learns To Walk Again
Antoine Cully and fellow researchers at the Sorbonne University in Paris say they’ve developed a technique that allows a damaged robot to learn how to walk again in just a few seconds.
(Robots recover from damage by trial and error)
This robot has 18 motors to power its six legs. Consequently, its gait depends on 36 different parameters that describe things like the amplitude of the movement of each motor, the phase shifts between them, the duty cycle for each joint and so on.The hexapod also has an on-board computer and a depth camera to estimate its walking speed. Its goal is to walk as fast as possible.
Before the robot is released into the wild, Cully and co calculate a behavioural repertoire of some 13,000 different gaits. However, they do not evaluate them; so the robot does not know how good each one is when a certain kind of damage occurs. Instead, the robot does this after it has become damaged.
So when the leg finally becomes damaged, the robot chooses a gait from the subset that minimises contact with the ground for that leg. It then measures how quickly it can walk using this gait.
It then uses this information to choose another gait, measures the resulting walking speed and feeds this information back into the model. After just a handful of tests, it can then select the best gait.
I think I saw this very idea demonstrated in a science fiction film thirty years ago. In the 1984 movie The Terminator, the Terminator robot's leg is damaged. Is the Terminator helpless? No, of course it determines a workable gait, and continues its inexorable pursuit of Sarah Connor, as seen in the following clip:
American roboticists have also worked on this problem. See Starfish Robot Shows Robotic Introspection And Self-Modeling which features one of my favorite robots, a robotic starfish, which can also determine a new gait for itself if it has a broken leg.
Via Medium.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 7/26/2014)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 3 )
Related News Stories - (" Robotics ")
Proof Of Robothood - Not A Person
'Who are you people? - Show 'em.' - James Cameron (1984).
Dancing Robots Taught Dance Moves
'A clockwork figure would be the thing for you...' Jerome K. Jerome, 1893.
Factory Humanoid Robots Built By Humanoid Robots
'...haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?' - Isaac Asimov (1940).
Mornine Sales Robot
'Robot-salesmen were everywhere, gesturing...' - Philip K Dick, 1954.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Proof Of Robothood - Not A Person
'Who are you people? - Show 'em.'
Dancing Robots Taught Dance Moves
'A clockwork figure would be the thing for you...'
Indonesian Clans Battle
'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
The 'Last Mile' In China Crowded With Delivery Robots
Yes, it's a delivery robot. On wheels.
Tornyol Microdrone Kills Mosquitoes
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
PLATO Spacecraft, Hunter Of Habitable Planets, Now Ready
'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
Factory Humanoid Robots Built By Humanoid Robots
'...haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?'
iPhone Air Fulfils Jobs' Promise From 2007 - A Giant Screen!
'... oblongs were all over the floor and surfaces.'
ChatGPT Now Participates in Group Chats
'...the city was their laboratory in human psychology.'
iPhone Pocket All Sold Out!
'A long, strong, slender net...'
Did The Yautja Have These First?
What a marvel of ingenuity the little device was!
Jetson ONE Air Races Begin, Can Air Polo Be Far Behind?
'If you're one of those rarities who haven't attended a rocket-polo "carnage", let me tell you it's a colorful affair.'
Will Space Stations Have Large Interior Spaces Again?
'They filed clumsily into the battleroom, like children in a swimming pool for the first time, clinging to the handholds along the side.'
Mornine Sales Robot
'Robot-salesmen were everywhere, gesturing...'
Bipedal Robot Floats Gently While Walking
'a walking balloon proceeded with long strides of its aluminum legs...'
Musk Idea Of Cars Talking To Each Other Predicted 70 Years Ago
'My cars talk to one another.'
