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Leonardo, the Bipedal Robot, Can Ride a Skateboard and Walk a Slackline
- option_greek 5y agoNot sure that bipedal motion is all that effective. Could have just put wheels instead for faster navigation and of course fly over terrain it can't navigate like its already doing.
- huhtenberg 5y agoIn theory, flying and hopping (via flying) can handle all walking scenarios. So if a robot can fly, that's it. In practice, I am guessing, walking or riding is far more power efficient.
- after_care 5y agoFlying greatly reduces the weight carrying capacity, and is in theory more susceptible to high wind environments. There’s a dozen “far future” use cases were a bipedal machine will be more acceptable to humans, including in home maid and artificial body.
- p1necone 5y agoThis can be much heavier than something that had to actually leave the ground would be.
- mam3 5y agoBipedal drone. Its not the same to stabilize on the slackline with rotors than without.
- bperson 5y agoIt is the same. The propellers take the same role as gyros. It just uses atmosphere to create lift to become buoyant to make up for the fact that it is not very powerful. Once it is buoyant the interaction between legs and blades seem like the same type of stabilization as any other robot- fast micro adjustments of various potential-filled motors to stay on course
- Retric 5y agoNot quite it’s much easier to balance on a slack line if you can put a hand or even just a few fingers on a stationary object. The propellers offer similar benefits.
- bperson 5y ago> if you can put a hand or even just a few fingers on a stationary object. The propellers offer similar benefits. As do gyros
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- whoknowswhat11 5y agoWow, what a ridiculously misleading headline. Caltech should be ashamed. Thanks for clarifying things. I wonder if I could have a drone drag a string on a slackline and talk about my balancing robot.
- p1necone 5y agoWho cares how it's stabilized, it still has all the same advantages that a regular bipedal robot would have. Being pedantic about the mechanical "purity" of the design seems counterproductive.
- shaftway 5y agoIt's not exactly being pedantic. If I saw a headline that talked about someone with a shattered spine learning to walk again, but it omitted the fact that the walking is accomplished with an exoskeleton, then it's pretty misleading. It can still be cool (I totally want an exoskeleton), but the headline is deeply inaccurate. After all, the thing has "drone" in the basis of its name.
- elhenrico 5y agoI can't unsee the Grim Fandango pidgeon in it.
- cs702 5y ago...and also fly over obstacles. Leonardo is a drone with two legs. Cool.
- kitd 5y agoNice. The idea of having stabilisation near the top of the frame well above the CoG rather than down at the ankles or hips seems like one of those obvious things that is easy to miss. I wonder whether/how that simplifies the rest of the control mechanisms.
- IshKebab 5y agoCool, but impossible to tell how good it is without knowing how much of the weight the drone part is dealing with. It could be "Leonardo, the drone with legs that can touch the ground" but we can't really tell.
- mrfusion 5y agoThis could be great for package delivery.
- mrfusion 5y agoIt’s interesting we never see birds or insects doing this hybrid walking flying locomotion. Perhaps some species of dinos did it. Update: An ask Jeeves search suggests ostriches use their wings for balance but I couldn’t find any videos. Can anyone find such a thing? Perhaps it’s misinformation.
- trhway 5y agowild turkeys can really fly-jump high - for the night they fly up to the 30 feet high branches. Looks very impressive. The robot in the OP is very inefficient for most of the practical tasks except where such mixed capabilities outweigh the inefficiencies, ie. like some military applications.
- ericbarrett 5y agoNorth American quail do exactly this. They don't fly for long distances; maybe 50m max, or a hop out of danger or over an obstacle. Most of the time they walk, and they have ground nests.
- pacaro 5y agoJungle fowl (from which we get chickens) can't fly long distances, they can only fly in bursts to escape predators, get to a roosting site etc. A jungle is a good example for this, a larger, ground based animal that can boost jump (for all intents and purposes) to get out of trouble, but doesn't need to fly through dense foliage where it would be tricky for a larger animal.
- clairity 5y ago> “It’s interesting we never see birds or insects doing this hybrid walking flying locomotion.” it’s energetically too expensive for basically no benefit (in daily life), so that’s why it’s limited to escape situations where the mortal danger outweighs energetic cost. this robot is also impractical beyond its research value for the same reason, too energetically costly. it’s too energetically costly because it’s constantly actively actuated, with two different sets of locomotors needing coordination on top of that, to achieve dynamic stability. animals rely on passive dynamic stability (akin to springs and dampers) to conserve energy and extend actuation time/efficiency (due to evolutionary pressure).
- JoeAltmaier 5y agoLots of room for optimization - hops are exaggerated height; props running even when on the ground.
- shoto_io 5y agoWhat is this? A flying robot? No. To me, it looks more like a walking drone!
- tromp 5y agoA high-heeled robot with a levitation spell.
- SMAAART 5y agoWhat's after singularity?
- hungryforcodes 5y agoLooks a bit like the main antagonist out of the Alien series...
- trollied 5y agoYoutube video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhpMlI8jb5o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhpMlI8jb5o Leonardo = LEgs ONboARD drOne
- throwaway984393 5y agoThat is absolutely terrifying. Can you imagine the Terminator movies where the Terminators can fly? I would have called it ridiculous before I saw this...
- warent 5y agoRobots are about as terrifying as a vacuum cleaner. They're fundamentally dumb machines that give an illusion of something more. Pull back the curtain and you'll see a potato brained CPU, ready to take instructions like a well trained dog.
- kevinmchugh 5y agoLots of people train dogs specifically to harm humans
- Tepix 5y agoTell that to the dead soldiers in Libya that were killed by an autonomous drone earlier this year https://www.voanews.com/a/africa_possible-first-use-ai-armed-drones-triggers-alarm-bells/6206728.html https://www.voanews.com/a/africa_possible-first-use-ai-armed...
- zepto 5y agoGuns are even less intelligent than robots. They are still terrifying when someone points one at you.
- anonymfus 5y agoThe whole point of Terminators was that they could look and act like humans so they can infiltrate. There were various flying war machines in Terminator movies. Notably the opening shot of the first Terminator movie shows a flying platform killing people with lasers, and in Terminator 3 there was an experimental drone in one of the labs in the facility where Robert Brewster worked.
- sizzle 5y agoRobocop comes to mind when looking at this thing
- codeulike 5y agoMe: "Leo, please bring me a cookie." Leo hops off the table picks up a cookie and walks over. Unfortunately as it gets near the sofa one of its propellers makes contact with the cookie ... Me, being showered in high speed crumbs: "Leo, please bring me another cookie"
- moffkalast 5y agoLeo: "If you take a cookie I will be forced to add one full day to your sentence."
- codeulike 5y agoMe: "Leo, please bring me my printout" Leo hops over the the printer and lifts the pile of newly printed pages. Unfortunately as it gets near to my desk, the paper is caught in the downdraft from Leos propellers ... Me, manually sorting my scattered fifty page printout back into page number order: "Leo, please play the sad trombone noise"
- jack_riminton 5y agoWhy not just fly?
- Causality1 5y agoThat's not riding a skateboard. That is dragging a skateboard.
- InvaderFizz 5y agoAgreed. This is not a bipedal robot. It's a drone that they added mostly useless legs to. From the video, I'm not sure it could even walk at all without the propellers spinning.
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- dougSF70 5y agoThis is a novel solution. Why should a robot replicate a human skeleton and muscle system. If the species could develop propeller mutations through evolutionary processes then perhaps we would have. I would say a drone with useless legs is an apt description for a bird.
- chrisco255 5y agoBecause it's a waste of energy. It's novel yet impractical.
- whoknowswhat11 5y agoExactly, there is a reason birds don't have 20 lb legs!
- jspash 5y agoJust curious, and this might sound naive but this is a serious question. Are drone "blades" (not sure of the correct term) more efficient when they aren't enclosed? I understand this is a test unit and there are myriad safety precautions taken when testing. But my first thought when seeing open blades is what happens if it falls, trips or otherwise goes out of control? Then you have rapidly spinning blades going helter skelter to deal with. Not just hitting into any soft humans standing around. But the floor, tables, doors, wires, expensive computer equipment. It seems a bit daft unless it has a purpose that I've missed.
- SamBam 5y agoMost drone propellors are extremely lightweight, meaning that the damage they can inflict is very limited.
- glitchcrab 5y agoThey have very high RPM though as my finger can attest when I mis-judged catching my DJI done once - the cut was surprisingly deep for light plastic props. I'd hate to see what a more substantial prop could do.
- fh973 5y agoGenerally, ducted propellers are more efficient. And yes, these blades are effectively rotating knives. Even small drone motors and propellers are very dangerous as the motors have a lot of power and high RPM, and the more high-end ones are made of CFK and have sharp edges. As these four do not only lift a drone, but a whole robot frame, I'd assume they'd easily cut through a finger.
- wertgklrgh 5y agodo a kickflip
- righttoolforjob 5y agoThis looks completely useless. What's the point?
- YeGoblynQueenne 5y agoFrom the accompanying video: "The goal is to give unprecedented walking ability and to solve problems posed by hybrid locomotion". https://youtu.be/DhpMlI8jb5o?t=33 https://youtu.be/DhpMlI8jb5o?t=33
- whoknowswhat11 5y agoThe idea that this is a bipedal robot is a joke. Makes you realize how ungrounded some of these research labs are - all hype, no substance. This is a drone with a huge amount of weight for these "bipedal legs".
- joe_the_user 5y agoWith things like this, it's worth keeping in mond that setting up a robot to do solo tricks is infinitely easier than getting a robot to interact with the real world in even the "easy" seeming ways that humans and animals use.
- dirtyid 5y agoSomething about this form factor that makes robotapocalypse seem more impending.
- motohagiography 5y agoIf robots can now ride skateboards and walk slacklines, I'd be interested to know what skaters and slackliners are planning to do now that they have suddenly been made useless.
- King-Aaron 5y agoI'm sure they will be able to reskill as robot service technicians
- chrismcb 5y agoWhat is the point of walking if you can fly?
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