Humanoid speed records

Comparing robots to each other is not an easy task given all the different design and control concepts. Furthermore a speed record, in my humble opinion, accounts more for human showmanship than for a scientific insight. Nevertheless, what robots actually run and at what speeds make frequently good lab discussions, and therefore I present a small ranking of humanoid robots and their reported speeds. Only human-size robots (based on my rather subjective judgement) are considered, the list will be updated. Continue reading

On the road I – TU Delft

IMAG0952 (Medium)Delft (NL). Visiting our Symbitron project partners in Delft we had the opportunity to play a bit with TULIP, a bipedal robot I have always been curious about. In Delft I joined my first Dynamic Walking Meeting and TULIP has been around back then.

It is a well engineered robot, suitable for dynamic tasks though maybe a bit underpowered. At an impressive weight of only 20kg at his height there is still a lot to do. Joost (left in the picture) is working on getting TULIP to walk in a limit cycle.

DARPA Robotics Challenge

The US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is running its Robotics Challenge to boost disaster relieve robotics. The first trials of a set of amazing robots, some more, some less, from university and corporate teams mostly from the US but also from abroad, are taking place in Florida this weekend. This event, starting December 20th, 2013 will most likely generate some great footage all over the web. Check it out!