When the robot runs, I was pleasantly surprised by how natural the gate seemed. I was expecting it to be clunky and well... robotic.
Post comment shout-out to briandmyers -Brian, I know you worked in the robotics field for a while. Any idea if this type of robotics is being used to help the handicapped like the company you worked for?
No idea. I will say that the gait of ASIMO is a lot more natural than the gait of the system I worked on, but there was a reason for this. ASIMO has a few huge advantages in this regard - its weight is known, its terrain is known (although to their credit, it does seem to handle limited slopes). The Rex exoskeleton, in contrast, has human cargo - of variable weight, and capable of throwing that weight around. Also, the Rex was designed with a stable gait - meaning, it was designed so that, if power or control is lost at any point in the gait, the machine does not topple. This requires it to move more slowly and deliberately than a human-like gait. A true human-like gait is really a controlled fall, and if you were to freeze at a random point in your gait, you will fall. That's not acceptable for Rex.
A true human-like gait is really a controlled fall, and if you were to freeze at a random point in your gait, you will fall. That's not acceptable for Rex.
-Good point. If Rex were to fall it would be a major problem. I never considered that at any point in a humans gait, we are essentially falling.