Robot Can Now Ride Bicycles ‘Like Humans’
PRIMER-V2 sits atop his custom bicycle.
World’s First? Tiny Robot Can Now Ride Bicycles Like Humans
In a groundbreaking development in robotics, Masahiko Yamaguchi (who goes under the moniker ‘Dr. Guero’) first demonstrated his bicycle-riding bot, PRIMER-V2 at the iRex International Robot Exhibition in 2011. Just recently, a new viral video was released showcasing the robot’s complex balance and steering, but wait until you see his predecessor!
Watch:
Another ‘World’s First’?
Although PRIMER-V2 in this video still appears to be controlled via a remote, Yamaguchi has already integrated A.I. features into later bi-pedal walking generations of the PRIMER series. According to his most recent updates, PRIMER appears to now dance autonomously and walk a tightrope.
Watch PRIMER-V5 allegedly dance without the help of remote instructions:
Watch PRIMER Walk A Tightrope:
Yamaguchi started developing PRIMER with nothing more than a pair of legs.
In recent history, the largest issues with bipedal robot innovations have been with walking, or creating a scalable design that will successfully support a combination of complex weight distribution of a ‘body’ along with algorithms mimicking human ‘gait’. In other words, robots were limited by the simple issue of balance with movement. This no longer appears to be an issue, remote-controlled or otherwise, for Yamaguchi’s PRIMER series. While PRIMER may be small and adorable today, these same specifications might easily be applied to ‘life-sized’ renditions in the near future.
Are we another step closer to the future we’ve been looking forward to for decades? Could this spell a new human threat combined with advances in artificial intelligence and cognition?
What do you think?
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