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Why Two-Legged Robots Aren't a Total Disaster | HardWIRED

Nothing in robotics is as unintentionally hilarious as watching a biped fall. But roboticists are making progress- like with this machine named Cassie.

Released on 08/30/2017


[Narrator] Nothing in robotics is

as unintentionally hilarious as the biped.

That's because it's insanely complicated

to get a humanoid robot to not instantly fall on its face.

On top of that, you've got to make it walk.

Just think how many times you've tripped

and fallen over, sober or otherwise,

and you've been doing this your whole life.

But roboticists are making progress,

like with this machine named Cassie,

which means we're getting closer

and closer to those humanoid robots

that we've been promised for so long.

(glitchy clicks)

Being a biped requires a whole lot of coordination.

We're trying to understand these fundamental principles

of locomotion, and with two legs, you can't cheat,

you have to always have this dynamic, stable gait,

you can't just stop, it's a very deep and complex problem.

I think people assume that walking

and running is relatively simple or straightforward,

simply because it's common.

[Narrator] On top of getting a biped robot to walk,

engineers have to worry about powering it.

After all, they can't just strap an enormous battery

on a robot's back and hope everything balances out.

It's also very, very efficient.

Cassie takes in the vicinity of 200 watts to walk around.

It's still not as efficient as a person,

it's still maybe one quarter as efficient as a person,

but there's a lot of room for improvement.

[Narrator] The real challenge right now is getting Cassie

to walk on its own.

[Jonathan] Everything is coming from the remote control

at this point, so what's gonna need to come next

and what we're working on right now is adding sensors

to this machine, and adding arms, as well.

[Narrator] The idea with two legged robots is

to build agile machines that get along better

with the human world.

After all, things like buildings are designed

with humans in mind, think ladders and stairs

and other obstacles, so if you've got a graceful

and efficient humanoid robot,

it could do things like explore nuclear facilities

and navigate disaster zones, or,

less dramatically, they could deliver packages

or act as personal assistants.

All well and good,

but humanoids are still a bit confusing for people.

What is that thing?

I'm trying to think, is it something for,

to help people, disabled people?

Yeah, that's a common, a pretty common reaction we get

from people, they're not too worried

about the robot, but they're curious about it.

[Narrator] Step by step,

roboticists are solving the problems of two legged movement,

which could change the way we interact with robots,

just as soon as we stop laughing at them.

(slow electronic music)