MABEL the robot runs like a human but stomps like a cylon
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Researchers at the University of Michigan have successfully crafted a chilling portrayal of what the future surely holds: a running, obstacle-scaling robot. This robot, which is called MABEL (not an acronym), is capable of running at speeds of up to 3.06 meters per second, or 6.8 mph. This might not sound very fast — humans jog at around 6 mph, and run at up to 25 mph — but just watch the video embedded below, and then try to tell me that you’re not impressed.
Physically, MABEL has a physiology that’s very similar to a human. It (she?) weighs around 65kg (143lbs), and most of that weight is in the torso (40kg). The legs are light, with springs that act as load-balancing and shock-absorbing tendons. Her movements are powered by four motors — two for each leg — which use a cable transmission. Sensors constantly monitor the angle of every knee and hip joint, and the overall orientation (balance) of the robot. MABEL herself is dumb, though: the data from the sensors is sent to an external computer — though presumably the next step might be to equip MABEL with a wearable computer… or a smartphone…
The hardware, though, as always, would be nothing without the software. MABEL uses a “nonlinear, compliant hybrid zero dynamics controller with active force control” — or, in other words, there is a very complex feedback mechanism at work. Basically, the research team built an incredibly accurate, mathematical representation of MABEL on a computer, which the control algorithm uses to work out what MABEL’s next move should be. Then, when MABEL moves, data from her sensors is fed back into this mathematical model, and her next move is then computed in real-time. The end result is a robot with a gait that spends 40% of its time completely off the ground and with its limbs many inches above the floor — far more “human” than any other running robot.
Watching the video below, though, there’s no avoiding the simple fact that MABEL’s thundering, goose-stepesque footfalls, and her complete, seemingly-brainless ease of operation is both terrifying and beautiful. On the one hand you are looking at a device that might one day replace our own legs with super-strength, hypersonic, bionic limbs, or perhaps form the basis for go-anywhere exoskeletons — and on the other, MABEL could easily be yet another step towards Battlestar Galactica’s cylons, or Skynet and Judgment Day.
Read more at the University of Michigan, and watch the two videos below