Quote:
Originally Posted by BenGuy
Your EXAMPLE is a robot that can't do anything but climb stairs. Try getting a robot with tracks to drive the atv, you need two legs to do that, as well as traverse the ground and getting in and out of it.
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Well, a leg is A method of pushing a pedal, another method would be a linear actuator mounted in a specific location. Also, wheeled robots can get out of the car, as one evidently has.
My point is that while the humanoid robots CAN do each of these tasks, (well, some of them at least) there is no logical design decision that leads to a bipedal conclusion when focusing on the tasks in this competition.
This doesn't mean there isn't a good reason and everyone is just crazy and wasting money. in fact, Electronica1 has already explained that the robots were less designed for the competition and more for the real world. It just means that I am confident that a robot designed to complete this range of tasks (along with those in the DRC trials of course) would not be bipedal.
I would, however, have to disagree that a bipedal design would be beneficial in any human environment. All of the quadrupeds in my home seem to be much more adept at climbing the stairs than any of the bipeds. I'm glad to have seen a few of those in the finals.