joints
Latest
AMBER robot walks on human-like feet but isn't quite ready for British Knights
Until recently, bipedal robots have sometimes had to take interesting approaches to imitate human walking because they lack our first points of contact with the road: heels and toes. The latest breakthrough from Texas A&M's Amber Lab robotics team may have fixed that, though. An approximation of those foot bones grants the robo-Manziel the pivot-points necessary for (somewhat) naturalistic locomotion. However, this advancement doesn't do nearly as much in terms of making the synthetic legs any stronger. Near the end of the embedded video, the disembodied legs stumble and fall to show that the attached boom isn't supporting their weight. This is great news for us meatbags, because it makes 2029 feel that much further away. Update: We received word from Texas A&M Amber Lab's Aaron Ames that the robot in fact supports its weight throughout the entire demo, and that the team purposely made it fall to show that the attached boom only provides lateral stability.
UK woman edges closer to becoming bionic woman
Eileen Brown doesn't have any full-fledged robotic phalanges or anything, but she is slowly but surely becoming what most would consider a bionic woman. Mrs. Brown has been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis since her 20s, and now that she's 49, countless operations have replaced every joint in her body with artificial alternatives save for her elbow and left hip -- the latter of which is set to be swapped out before the month's end. Currently, the determined dame lives with a lot of pain, but she refuses to let a few aches ruin her livelihood. In all honesty, the most amazing part of this isn't the ability of metal (enough to set off an airport detector) to hold a person together, it's the will to soldier on. Kudos, Eileen.[Via Digg]
