Toyota's monopedal robot leg will jump, jump!
By Cyrus Farivar 
posted Sep 14th 2006 4:31AM
posted Sep 14th 2006 4:31AM
We can imagine few things more frightening than a monopedal robot with a white plastic bulge as a head, but that's precisely what Toyota has created: a monopedal 3.3-foot tall robot that can jump 1.6 inches off the ground. Seriously. This guy is next on the evolutionary ladder for robots, which are slowly coming together with articulate arms, faces, and now fully extendable legs to eventually form the Voltron-like shape of a seriously bulbous dude. In fact, this leg would go well on that bot we blogged about the other week that is designed to carry injured soldiers off of the battlefield -- given that any given robot could run probably monopedal-jump away faster than it could roll (at least in our vivid imaginations).[Via The Raw Feed]
I for one welcome our monopedal jumping robot overlords
I, for one, welcome our monopedal 1.6inch jumping strangly bulbous robotic overlords
Hmm, soon we are really having robots that actually move quite smooth. Now, how's it going to get up when it falls :)
I for one welcome our.....oh no wait, I think it's already been done.....yes....yes it has.
"In fact, this leg would go well on that bot we blogged about the other week that is designed to carry injured soldiers off of the battlefield"
No way! If my leg's broken or something, I don't want to be on a bloody jumping robot!
*jump* *bump* *jar* *screams*,
*jump* *bump* *jar* *screams*,
*jump* *bump* *jar* *screams*,
every 1.6 inches for the next several hours.
Torture indeed.
Does this remind anyone of the Peter Cook & Dudley Moore one-legged man sketch.. it must be just me then.
For years, I've dreamt of a one-legged a$$-kicking machine, and today I finally see it... and it's a Toyota product?!
Can I order 50 for my old office?
Oh, my. It's a robotic Dufflepud!
Kris Kross reference in the headline?
Thank you.
Maybe I'm the only one, but as I child who watched "Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears", its all I could think of when I saw the picture. There's one episode that's strangely burned into my mind where some of the bears find this giant, mechanical leg hidden in some cave or something. Turns out its a giant monopedal machine that hops all over the place and destroys everything. Am I the only one with some random episode of gummi bears burned into my brain? ugh.
"hey, lets go monopedal-robot-tipping!"
"sweet!"
I just saw something very much like this at the MIT museum yesterday. Their leg technology center developed something exactly like this a while ago (albeit spaceframe design and not shiny white). THey also had 2 and 4 legged robots that can walk, jump, and do backflips.
Will it wear its monopants backwards?
Haha, I clicked on this story just to see if someone would mention dufflepuds and I was not disappointed :-D
So this one would try to kick my ass someday, ha!
Oh my pants! I want one for the sole purpose of riding to work.
hang on.. now that I think of it, wasn't this one of the monsters in Monty on the Run?
If they added all the technology together we would have a super robot that will take all of our jobs away.