These things are impressive, but the knowledge that variable compliance and passive dynamics are needed to produce robust and energy efficient motion has been around for a long time. Marvin Minsky recently commented that it was already known in the 1970s that you had to make robot arms compliant in order to make them really useful. The Barrett Technology arm is a good example of this, and may lead to robot manipulators which can be produced cheaply, are lightweight and also safe to use in a home or office environment.
These things are impressive, but the knowledge that variable compliance and passive dynamics are needed to produce robust and energy efficient motion has been around for a long time. Marvin Minsky recently commented that it was already known in the 1970s that you had to make robot arms compliant in order to make them really useful. The Barrett Technology arm is a good example of this, and may lead to robot manipulators which can be produced cheaply, are lightweight and also safe to use in a home or office environment.
Posted by: Bob Mottram | Sunday, 29 July 2007 at 11:01 AM