Creating robots that can perform acrobatic movements such as flips or spinning jumps can be highly challenging. Typically, in fact, these robots require sophisticated hardware designs, motion planners and control algorithms. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of Massachusetts Amherst recently designed a new humanoid robot supported by an actuator-aware kino-dynamic motion planner and a landing controller. This design, presented in a paper pre-published on arXiv, could allow the humanoid robot to perform back flips and other acrobatic movements. "In this work, we tried to come up with realistic control algorithm to make a real humanoid robot perform acrobatic behavior such as back/front/side-flip, spinning jump, and jump over an obstacle," Donghyun Kim, one of the researchers who developed the robot's software and controller, told TechXplore.

Japanese car maker Toyota unveils a new humanoid robot that mirrors the movements of its remote operator, as Stuart McDill reports. A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. Japanese car maker Toyota unveils a new humanoid robot that mirrors the movements of its remote operator, as Stuart McDill reports.

Toyota has unveiled a new humanoid robot that can mimic the actions of a human operator, allowing it to do everything from balancing on one foot to squeezing a balloon without popping it. The new system relies on a remote control'Master Maneuvering System', which uses an array of sensors to directly communicate physical movements to the robot. According to the creators, this could be used to assist people at home, hospitals, or one day, even in space. Toyota has unveiled its third-generation humanoid, dubbed T-HR3. The bot connects to a human operator using a Master Maneuvering System and a virtual reality headset.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (or DARPA) wants robots that can walk like human beings and do other human activities, such as climbing ladders, using tools, and completing other day-to-day activities. But that requires a bit of stability. Now, one team has taken us a step closer to that dream by creating the SRI DURUS robot. SRI is one of the teams funded by DARPA that is tasked with creating robots that are ultimately 20 times more efficient walkers (as compared to their predecessor)s. Recent work shows that DURUS has almost reached its goal of being 20 times better than ATLAS, another bipedal robot.