I think they specifically chose that to display that it has no “forward” axis, robots don’t need to be 100% anthropomorphic and follow our biological limitations, this is a very significant evolution in design that will allow for better mobility
I’d go further to argue that it’s very necessary for robots to have even more mobility such as wheels to take advantage of momentum and increase efficiency. There’s a reason the wheel was invented, things like bicycles, wheelbarrows, etc.
The ANYmal wheeled legged robot is an example of that.
I wonder if someday in the future we might use reinforcement learning to iterate over different mechanical designs to explore even more exotic combinations of wheels, springs, hydraulic pistons, steel wires, legs and joints (optimizing for metrics like mobility etc). I even wonder if flexible joints made out of hard rubber could offer any advantages on bipedal motion
I think they specifically chose that to display that it has no “forward” axis, robots don’t need to be 100% anthropomorphic and follow our biological limitations, this is a very significant evolution in design that will allow for better mobility
I’d go further to argue that it’s very necessary for robots to have even more mobility such as wheels to take advantage of momentum and increase efficiency. There’s a reason the wheel was invented, things like bicycles, wheelbarrows, etc.
The ANYmal wheeled legged robot is an example of that.
https://newatlas.com/robotics/anymal-swiss-mile-quadruped-wheeled-standing-robot/
Yes, very good point!
I wonder if someday in the future we might use reinforcement learning to iterate over different mechanical designs to explore even more exotic combinations of wheels, springs, hydraulic pistons, steel wires, legs and joints (optimizing for metrics like mobility etc). I even wonder if flexible joints made out of hard rubber could offer any advantages on bipedal motion
They might be able to ride bikes at some point.
I think the benefits to making them humanoid are underrated in this comment section.