Several U.S. teams are focused on bipedal walking, generally considered among the most difficult of all humanoid-robotics challenges and the one most closely linked to human applications, in that building bipedal robots helps researchers to develop a better prosthetic leg and foot because it forces them to reverse-engineer human movement. Marc Raibert, considered the father of leg robotics, founded the Leg Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon in 1980 and then moved it to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987 before going on to launch Boston Dynamics in 1992. The company’s four-legged BigDog and two-legged Petman are capable of walking across unstable terrain—perfect for carrying supplies alongside a soldier on patrol—and can regain their balance dynamically even after being suddenly and violently shoved off course. Yobotics, founded by four alumni of MIT’s Leg Lab, created M2, a bipedal robot that can walk in place and balance on one leg. And the University of Michigan’s Human Biomechanics and Control Laboratory, headed by professor of mechanical engineering Art Kuo, is developing an “elastic locomotion” model that can help explain how we humans walk without seriously exerting ourselves。
Each of these systems feels like its own piece of an all-in-one American-made robot of the future. But without a governing authority piecing them together, or a centralized funding agency directing their convergence, each team, and their individual pieces of technology, will never form a cohesive whole。
(文章节选自：大众科学)
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