Giant step as robots learn to walk tall

The latest in bipedal robots were given a run at the AAAS meeting yesterday, with a selection of two-legged ramblers that locomote like a human.

One could even teach itself to walk in less than 20 minutes or about 600 steps.

Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston; Cornell University, New York; and Holland's Delft University described their work, which is also published this morning in the journal Science. All make use of a new approach to robot movement that much more closely imitates the way that humans walk.

The Cornell machine led the way in terms of efficiency, using just a tenth of the power needed by the current "best" walker, Honda's Asimo robot, according to Prof Andy Ruina of Cornell. Power consumption is a key issue, given robots must carry battery packs when out for a stroll.

Most robots use opposing motors to strictly control all movement, Prof Ruina said. "In other robots the motors are fighting themselves." His team and the others in Delft and MIT took a lead from antique walking toys, one dating to 1880, that "walk" down an incline using nothing but gravity.

The research could lead to better prosthetic legs and feet for amputees and more efficient manufacturing robots.

The MIT self-learning robot is known as the "toddler".

"Toddler is one of the first walking robots to use a learning programme and it is the first to learn to walk without any prior information built into the controller," said Dr Russ Tedrake.