Want a Robot to Walk Like You? Don't Expect It to Look Human

Editor's note: This is part of our series HardWIRED: Welcome to the Robotic Future, in which we explore the fascinating machines transforming society. A central tension in robotics is that while humanity created the robot in its image--the classic humanoid biped of sci-fi--those two-legged machines are particularly hard to build. Getting a bipedal robot to not fall on its face, much less walk, is a feat that no one has mastered. Roboticists are getting there, though. Take, for instance, a robot called Cassie from Agility Robotics.