Robot staggers but does not fall when pushed
I am walking on a busy street with people brushing against me nearly making me stumble over the pavement. I enter a railway station and stand in the queue to buy a train ticket. I tough looking guy tries to jostle me aside but I manage to stand the rogue's shove. I take the elevator to climb down the underground station to catch the train that will take me to the techno fair. In the midst of so much jostling and shoving in queues, elevators and sidewalks I do stagger but I still keep standing to the awe and amusement of the humans and my fellow bots, for I am only a robot.
The above lines are not from any science fiction but it could safely pass as the autobiography of a robot created by the US firm Sarcos. The robot has the ability to rebalance itself when shoved. The software, which makes the robot 'stagger', which is another word for repeated stabilization efforts, has been developed by researchers at Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology.
The software uses force sensors located in the joints of the robot to calculate the position of the robot's centre of gravity when it moves around and how much additional force is required to stay upright when the centre of gravity of the robot is disturbed when the bot receives a shove. Just like in humans, the robot's ankles flex to exert the additional force required to maintain its balance.
The truth is that the two feet tall Sarcos robot has another compatriot in the BigDog robot that is able to rebalance itself when it is kicked in the hindquarters.
Image: New Scientist
Source: Technovelgy
