Tuesday, October 22, 2013

The Umbilical Link of Man to Robot

<p>The bipedal humanoid robot known as "Atlas" at the University of Hong Kong on Oct. 17, 2013. It is six feet tall and weighs 330 pounds.</p><p>WORCESTER, Mass. Atlas doesn't shrug. But he teeters, loses his grip, stutters and staggers.</p><p>His task one afternoon is to clear a debris field. After many agonizing moments, in a set of abrupt and jerky movements, he crouches and with painstaking precision manages to grasp a two-by-four board and then drop it to his right. At the rate he is moving, completing the chore might take days.</p><p>Atlas in this case is an imposing, six-foot-tall humanoid robot that evokes the bipedal "Star Wars" robot C-3PO. It stands in a cluttered robotics laboratory here at Worcester Polytechnic Institute where a team of students, engineers and software hackers are training the 330-pound bundle of sensors, computers, metal struts, joints and cables.</p><p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/22/science/robot-games-a-challenge-for-the-machines-and-the-controllers.html">Keep reading...</a></p>

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