Hank Fletcher

Hi all! I finally got around to posting my video on Youtube. The video illustrates my thoughts on human walking as it pertains to the design of a walking robot. Some food for thought, or at least infotainment. Enjoy, and feel welcome to express your opinion either here or on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCYpj5C_QIo

ericgibbs

hi Hank,
I see that in some of the higher modern 'skyscrapers' they are using a moving mass at the top the building in order cancel any off balance due to wind forces.

Couldnt you just move a heavish mass left/right in the head cavity say, rather than moving the head on the neck length, to move the COG.??

Regards

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Hank Fletcher

I suppose you could. I think the main criteria for designing a humanoid, walking robot are:
1) Does it walk like a human?
2) Is it a practical design? If not, defer to point 1) in redesign.

The problems with the head-weight are:
1) It doesn't move humanly. What would you use as the weight, by the way?
2) It's not practical. For the same amount of COG offset, you'd have to move a small weight in the head a great distance to achieve the same effect as moving a large mass (like the entire upper body) a very small distance. I leave it up to you to decide which moves more humanly.

I think a big difference between balancing buildings and balancing people walking is that one is meant to be balanced and stay still, and the other is meant to be balanced while in motion.

Wow! After only an hour on Youtube, my video already has two honours!