I don’t get the thought of “but you could just do that with treads.”
Sure, but people are pretty versatile. We can cross sand, mud, snow, rock, and then go climb a tree or mountain. Sometimes it not all about efficiency as compared to adaptability.
1 Like
It’s true that a treaded vehicle can’t climb a tree or a vertical rock face, but then neither can this robot.
You could probably build a robot that could do all those things but it’s unlikely that the most efficient possible design would end up shaped like a human being. Designing robots in our own image has more to do with vanity than utility.
1 Like
How about a home health aid for the elderly, so they don’t have to go to a nursing home?
Don’t ask me why I happen to think of this. You’ve heard that cute saying – “sixty is the new dead.”
1 Like
What’s wrong with developing a better, automated nursing home?
2 Likes
Staying at home can be a big advantage, just because of familiarity, memory cues, and not being wrenched away from home and family. Of course that may not be true for everyone. There is a lot of efforts nowadays to figure out ways to do this economically.
3 Likes
This
With practice one can do broken field running at a fast jog in pitch darkness, but only because of the tactile and auditory feedback.
2 Likes
If I were programming it, it would raise its arms once on solid ground, celebration-style. AND emit a Homer Simpson-esque “Whoo-hoo!”
2 Likes
If daleks can go up stairs, we’re doomed.
2 Likes
To get to those things, this likely would need to come first, ya think?
Robot ninja assassins. I’d like to see how well that tank-thread model people keep suggesting can run on a tightrope, dodge arrows, perform basic sword backflips, etc.
1 Like
I just remembered I bought that and never read it. I hope it was Kindle…im screwed if it was dead tree version.
It’s a good book and a really quick read. It took me about a day to get through it. It says interesting things about Disability Culture and its intersections and mutual benefits with technology. Of course, it sets up a completely hypothetical and totally futuristic backdrop in order to do so, but it’s still relevant. I like how the meningitis outbreak and technology’s response to it aren’t the main story, but are rather a support structure that allow the main plot thread to take place. It’s like a mystery that’s more philosophical problem than classic whodunit.
/hijack
2 Likes
It makes sense that you’d need to build a robot that could walk before you could build one that can climb, but there’s no reason the form of such a robot need resemble a human. We evolved to balance on two legs because we are descended from quadrupeds who needed to free up their forelimbs. A robot built from scratch has no such design limitations other than those we impose on it.
2 Likes
So true, and let me tell you, octopi are freaking amazing at doing all that shite!
3 Likes
Someone’s earlier comment about the goal being an eventual humanoid robot that can trivially interact with all manner of environment designed for humanoids is one I would reiterate.
This is kind of why I think self-driving cars are a red herring. Just because we have cars and we have autonomous systems doesn’t mean we can slap an autonomous system on a car and expect it to work. It can probably be more easily done using a new distributed infrastructure to support all self-driving cars, rather than an individual system for each unit. Just as our current iteration of roads and traffic rules grew organically in response to need, the same process must take place to support self-driving cars.
all the better to crush your skull with my dear
The length of time it takes to learn to walk has more to do with physical growth than mental development. Human babies are born much earlier than many other mammals; it’s mechanically impossible for a newborn human to support itself on those ridiculous little legs, even if it were preternaturally coördinated and focused on the task. Compare to foals or fawns, which are up and walking within an hour of birth.
Wheels and treads can’t climb rock faces or traverse large irregular riprap.
Which isn’t an argument for upright bipedal locomotion — four legs would be more effective — but in learning how to make robots do something unnecessarily difficult we learn things that can be applied to more sensible designs.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
