appear cutesy, but a pair of robots that turned up recently at the Ford Motor Company’s Van Dyke Transmission Plant, in Detroit, are practical working machines. They may, indeed, point to the future of automation. Putting robots into factories is hardly a new idea—some 2.4m of them are already at work in plants around the world. But most of these are little more than giant arms, bolted firmly to the ground, that weld and paint things.
The Spot range is the first of Boston Dynamics’s walking robots to be commercialised. More such machines are starting to appear from other firms and research groups. Some are also quadrupeds. Others are bipedal. The two-legged sort can be more agile and, if equipped with arms as well, are better suited to tasks like picking things up or operating controls. What all of these machines have in common is that they represent—forgive the pun—a huge step forward in robot locomotion.
What changed? “We now understand the mathematics of locomotion to a much greater degree,” explains Dr Ames. Old-school walking robots, such as Asimo, a famously cheesy android unveiled in 2000 by Honda, a Japanese carmaker, have stilted gaits. They shuffle along, placing one foot forward, checking their balance, moving the other foot, rechecking their balance, and so on. “When you are walking, you don’t do that,” he says. “Your feet are just coming down and catching yourself.
Another example of art evolving to imitate nature occurred during the design of Digit. This inherited its ostrich looks from Cassie, a two-legged torso which Agility sold to a number of research groups. Cassie’s developers had to find a way to stop some of the robot’s actuator motors from working against each other. Their solution turned out to look like a pair of bird’s legs.
With further development, walking robots will undertake more complex tasks, such as home deliveries. Ford is working on this with a Digit robot that rides in the back of a van. Though robots with wheels already make some deliveries, reaching many homes is tricky, and may involve climbing steps or stairs. “Legs are how you would want to get up to most front doors to deliver a package,” observes Dr Hurst.
Super
Why.
Until they run, they're basic utility. When they run, they'll be gobbled up by MIC with contract demands to modify programming. That's when we should start worrying.
And apparently inside us too.
Humans, Beware- Obesity coming up!
fordnation ..and we can expect they'll be speaking French if Ontario let's Quebec monopolize AGI , robotics, and generally hoarding HIGH ADVANCED TECH funding, investment, innovation and global attention🌍🌏🌎