PIGORASS quadruped robot baby steps past AIBO’s grave (video)

Does the Uncanny Valley extend to re-creations of our four-legged friends? We’ll discover soon enough if Yasunori Yamada and his University of Tokyo engineering team have the ability to get their PIGORASS quadruped bot beyond its first unsteady hops, and right into a full-on gallop. Developed as a way of analyzing animals’ musculoskeletal system to be used in biologically-inspired robots, the team’s cyborg critter gets its locomotion on via a combo of CPU-controlled pressure sensors and potentiometers. It could move like a bunny (for now), but each limb’s been designed to operate independently in an try and simulate a simplified neural system. Given slightly more time and tweaking (let alone a superb, faux fur coating), we’re pretty sure this wee bitty beastie’ll scamper its way into the houses of tomorrow. Investigate the lil’ fella within the video after the break.

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This post is tagged: engineering team, four legged friends, locomotion, neural system, pressure sensors, uncanny valley, university of tokyo