3 ms·

My pet theory is that this is going to be way easier when tactile/pressure sensors drop their cost/resolution by orders of magnitude. Animals basically have a

My pet theory is that this is going to be way easier when tactile/pressure sensors drop their cost/resolution by orders of magnitude. Animals basically have a feedback loop that works a little bit with proprioception / position measures and way more with expectations of tactile sense (to see this, reflect on how you move in the dark: not thinking about your joint angles, but about that not to kick!). As a hobbyist, for example, there is no way I can have a "video" of pressure maps on an artificial skin, so I can only hack my way with a one-dimensional finger-mounted pressure sensor. How on earth can I program a robot to use his hand only by looking at it? I would magine that most researchers are in a similar way restricted to work with subpar feedback loops.

candiodari 8y ago
While it's true that animals, including humans have a long list of tricks built into their bodies to increase their chances of a correct grasp, to enable force application in the first place, and in some cases to deliberately damage whatever they're grasping (thus wounding and/or killing prey), I think you'll find that the dexterity required to jump a cat body at all is very, very hard. Moving a cat body, at 130 kph, on an angle that will take the front claw (they always use the same one) across the throat of a wildly jumping around animal (with enough force to allow the claw to rip it open) while keeping that same cat body away from any hooves (one hit from even deer hooves will at the very least end the hunt of any puma, and can do damage up to killing it) is ... it's not just ridiculously hard. It's almost absurd what sort of control you'd need. I'm also not very sure how tactile sensors help, even if they could not just register contacts but air speeds as well, that does not seem like it would make the problem much easier. Plus cats are a very "general" body. The number of ways it can move, because it lacks a fully connected inner bone structure (so almost any cat joint can move remarkably far in almost any direction). I'm pretty sure this adds insult to injury and makes it a lot harder yet again.

candiodari 8y ago

While it's true that animals, including humans have a long list of tricks built into their bodies to increase their chances of a correct grasp, to enable force application in the first place, and in some cases to deliberately damage whatever they're grasping (thus wounding and/or killing prey), I think you'll find that the dexterity required to jump a cat body at all is very, very hard. Moving a cat body, at 130 kph, on an angle that will take the front claw (they always use the same one) across the throat of a wildly jumping around animal (with enough force to allow the claw to rip it open) while keeping that same cat body away from any hooves (one hit from even deer hooves will at the very least end the hunt of any puma, and can do damage up to killing it) is ... it's not just ridiculously hard. It's almost absurd what sort of control you'd need. I'm also not very sure how tactile sensors help, even if they could not just register contacts but air speeds as well, that does not seem like it would make the problem much easier. Plus cats are a very "general" body. The number of ways it can move, because it lacks a fully connected inner bone structure (so almost any cat joint can move remarkably far in almost any direction). I'm pretty sure this adds insult to injury and makes it a lot harder yet again.