Creating robots that can walk as well as humans has been a hurdle that robotics has been struggling to overcome for some time now. But now, researchers from the United States have successfully produced a pair of robotic legs that walks just the way humans do. The findings could help those with spinal cord injuries and pave the way for a new level of robotics.
Walking involves a complex series of interactions between the senses, muscles, and nervous system. For the first time, scientists have simplified this mechanism and created robotic legs that are the closest representation to how humans biologically walk.
One of the major components of human walking is the central pattern generator (CPG), which is a neural network found in the spinal cord's lumbar area. The CPG fires off signals in response to sensory feedback it receives from the environment around us. This is what allows people to walk without having to constantly think about it.
Interestingly, we were able to produce a walking gait, without balance, which mimicked human walking with only a simple half-centre controlling the hips and a set of reflex responses controlling the lower limb," said co-author of the study Theresa Klein, a Ph.D. student at the University of Arizona.
A half-centre is the simplest form of the CPG and involves two neurons firing off signals in an alternating rhythm. The robot's simple half-centre is similar to the one babies have that allows them to walk on a treadmill even before they have learned to walk.
"This underlying network may also form the core of the CPG and may explain how people with spinal cord injuries can regain walking ability if properly stimulated in the months after the injury," said Klein.
Watch the robot walk:
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
