An employee of tmsuk Co demonstrates the WL-16RIII, the world’s first biped walking robot capable of carrying a person. It has a joy stick-like controller for operation so that a driver can decide movement direction and speed. The robotic legs can also negotiate stairs and could eventually find use as a wheelchair substitute, tmsuk officials say.

I saw that and I swear I remember one in futurama (in the bigfoot episode he's going through the woods on something similar and says hiking is difficult on the arse)

Were THIS Much closer to an At-At now!

YAY!

That'd be a gigantic waste of power. A single batery today goes out in about 32 hours with normal usage in power wheelchairs. I doubt you'd get half a day's worth out of that machine. Not to mention, it's very unreasonable for transfering and accessability. What kind of vehical could store that?

Oh well. One step closer. Haha, pun.

Stairs, Kirby. STAIRS.

I can make stairs if I get good speed. Going up them, however, requires my portable jump. I don't need legs.

I'm with kirby. This has no advantage over any other mobility device. In fact, quite the contrary with its many disadvantages: slower speed, worse balance, less efficient.

Oh, and I counter your STAIRS with the Americans with disabilities act. :p

The idea is that its a concept being put to work. give it time and it will become more refined.

Of course, but what possible advantage could even an optimally-refined version of this have?

Except its so much cooler than wheeled devices *****es.

It would be a lot more mobile than a wheelchair. Though I'm sure it costs tens of thousands of dollars currently.. Perhaps over time it will become more popular.

That depends on what you mean by mobile. I consider speed to be an important part of mobility. Obviously a wheelchair is faster than a massive hulk of metal that uses computer programs and gyroscopes to keep itself from tipping over. Another part of mobility is accessibility, or which areas you can get to. Here, the massive hulk of metal may - *may* have an advantage. But it might not. It could probably handle stairs (although it would be tough), but do you really think it could handle rough terrain? It would be a balancing nightmare.

To me, the tradeoff between speed and accessibility is not worth it. I really think people wouldn't want to spend 5 minutes just travelling from one end of a building to another. Besides - where the hell does the average person need to take a wheelchair that it can't go? Not many places. What happens if you need to get through a door? Most doors don't have enough clearance to accommodate that behemoth.

Same guy that made the Segway has a wheelchair with the ability to climb stairs that seems much more efficient (and cooler). :p

http://www.gizmag.com/go/4380/
http://www.independencenow.com/ibot/

If they were smart they'd combine wheels with jointed legs, allowing the speed, but then being able to "climb" up the rougher terrain.

imagine how big the first computer was. or the first chip on a PC board, and see how far microprossesors have come in size in just 5 years. i don't doubt that within 10 years this kind of thing will be able to be within the size of normal human legs, and could be attached to a human torso.

yeah, monoxide. if they were smart.. because im sure they're not smart. this is obviously a very easy thing to do.



uhm, are you serious? how about being exactly like human legs? ...duh.

and then maybe have sensors attached to where the body is sending messages from the brain to move the leg muscles, and having the robot legs react accordingly, so there wouldnt even need to be controls?

Do you have stairs in your house?

But what if the evil robot legs rebelled, and starting running people all over for no good reason? What then? Think of the children that could get squished by robot legs on the run!

That's awesome, its a license to squash people and get away with it. "It wasn't me! It's the ai!"

The dual problem with both of the examples here is one of limitations in the physical realm. Until recently, both halves of Moore's laws concerning microprocessors and memory space were followed, however, the microprocessor half has to deal now with the problems that arise on a quantum level, so we aren't exactly able to follow Moore's law any more, and the only way we'll be able to fully continue moving forward (barring additional motherboard size, of course) is a paradigm shift to a new system, so instead of transistors, you're using something else.

The same sort of problem arises with this physical system: The sheer weight of the human body requires a not insignificant amount of material to support it. Of course, they're looking to get around this by using new materials and the like, and getting more efficient designs. It's quite possible that they might come up with the advances needed to do what you say, but I would wager it'll take longer than that.

I think it looks retarded, not to mention sloowww. :p

But it is a fun idea.

This is why it's worlds first, not world's best.
Theres a long way to go, but this is a great step.

Speaking of robot masters, anyone else see this?
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200605/kt2006050417203910160.htm

Well it could finally make a use for that wheelchair ramp next to the museum in Edinburgh.

I can't find my picture, but there's a wheelchair ramp in the street, that leads to stairs.

All they need to do is make the legs a little bigger and build a protective covering for the pilot and... oh.. what is that? It's a mech! Ha, and the Japanese are well on their way to making them a reality.

I think this invention is sweet.

DUH YOU MORONS

WHEELCHAIRS CAN'T KICK PEOPLE

I swear to God, I saw something on Dicovery last year that was a wheelshair of which the wheels could rotate and lock in such movements, you could climb stairs with it.

This better be a gateway to Magitek armour...

They already have technology like this to move pianos upstairs.

To anyone that says this machine would have trouble negotiating a set of stairs, you are wrong.