[ExI] can you do this? i can't

[spike]

>… On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes
Subject: Re: [ExI] can you do this? i can't

 

On Tue, Sep 13, 2016 at 9:02 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net <mailto:spike66 at att.net> > wrote:

 https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/11/humanoid-robot-balances-on-one-foot/ 

 

Yeah, I used to do that all the time.  (Swapping from foot to foot as I moved along the beam, though.)  Good to see they're getting kinematics figured out for robots, though.

 

 

Adrian, I am in awe of this accomplishment.  They are solving what I would have thought as nearly intractable controls problems steadily.  What I thought of today is that it is almost like watching humans age in reverse.  Many of us watched the Robot Olympiads in 2013, 2014, and this year, none of which was all that impressive, but clearly there was improvement.  Then we saw that Boston Dynamics video of the biped walking through the woods.  It kinda reminded me of an older guy walking, a little unsteady here and there.  But this robot balancing reminded me of a younger guy, perhaps even a particularly nimble younger guy.

 

So we have a clear goal, we have ever growing high school and college teams building these things, we have better and better instrumentation, computer languages, accelerometers, solid state gyros, a growing awareness of how all this stuff can work together.  After watching this, I am more confident we will get to see in our lifetimes robots doing all the regular Olympic sports, the tumbling, the running, the pole vault (wouldn’t THAT be cool?) the various sports, don’t know about springboard diving or the swimming events.  Skiing perhaps.

 

We know there are inherent advantages to having robots in human form, so they can compete in human sports and use human-designed tools, keep us company, make conversation.  I know it is a small thing, but just seeing the balance-on-one-foot bot encourages me that we will get to see practical sex bots, companion bots, all of it.  This old world might turn into a much more pleasant place in which to be lonely.

 

spike 

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