The Robot NASA Should Buy To Replace Broken Valkyrie
#NASA's @nasavalkyrie can't walk unless it is held up by cables & it breaks a lot. Meanwhile over at @BostonDynamics https://t.co/9ujoiVv4n2
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) March 3, 2017
“Handle is a research robot that stands 6.5 ft tall, travels at 9 mph and jumps 4?feet vertically. It uses electric power to operate both electric and hydraulic actuators, with a range of about 15 miles on one battery charge. ?Handle uses many of the same dynamics, balance and mobile manipulation principles?found in the quadruped and biped robots we build, but with only about 10 actuated joints, it is significantly less complex. Wheels are efficient on flat surfaces while legs can go almost anywhere: by combining wheels and legs Handle can have the best of both worlds.”
Is it just me or does it look like it’s not only doing all those amazing things, but it’s doing them while moving backwards?
That’s because its knees bend like an ostrich’s, not a humans.
The elbows are also reversed.
very, very impressive
That sounded a lot quieter than some of their previous ones. Is it running just on batteries?
Power is the big killer when it comes to really capable robots. Would you send a rover that needs several Kilowatts of power just to move?
A few kilowatts isn’t too bad. I think a human walking at a reasonable pase is in that range. It’s been a while, but I believe the numbers for human, metabolic heat production range from 0.25 kW (unconscious) to 15 kW (swimming at an Olympic-prize-winning speed.)
It’s not bad for humans, or for anything being run on Earth. But for a rover on another planet it’s a big issue. Curiosity only had about 125 Watts of power at the start of the mission, supplemented by batteries so it could store up some power for limited use where more than 125 Watts would be needed.
That means you either need a much bigger RTG power source on board, much larger solar panels, or a system using either of the first two to make chemical fuel that mobile rovers could then fill up on and use (or simply recharge a larger set of on-board batteries).
Hope they all have the 3 laws programmed in…
They did not show it climbing the stairs but presumably it could hop or raise one leg at a time. Boston dynamics has some really impressive designs. I like the idea that it can be both bipedal and wheeled, on flat terrain wheels are much more efficient although there are no wheeled animals.
Hoop snakes?
Technically the hoop snake is mythological, but it’s an interesting concept. I would love to see a robot hoop snake.
I think there’s a desert spider that folds its legs in such a way that it can roll like a wheel down dunes…
Ha! There’s something I haven’t heard of for a few decades! As I recall they had a stinger in their tail as well.