Dear Technology, Thank You For Another Walking Robot Video

Look, I realize that my own engineering background pretty much began and ended with that time I changed the batteries in my TV remote, but even I must make a little sense when I say ENOUGH WITH THE WALKING ROBOTS, por favor. Our latest stumbling amazement comes from AIST’s HRP-2 Promet, an upright humanoid (the least skanky kind of humanoid, really) they’ve had in the works for some time now. And, like a budding teenager, the latest pubescent step for our lil’ guy is the (limited) ability to walk across various/uneven surfaces. It’s like my grandfather used to always warn me, “One minute the robots are learning to walk and the next they’re trying to have sex with you”. I’m not entirely sure what my grandfather meant by his forewarning, but he was wearing a diaper at the time, so I think that adds some level of validity to his claim.

Do it to it, Plastic Pals:

It may not look like much of a difference, but even these minor changes in height would be enough to trip up many bipedal robots of this size. As it swings around to head back it has to walk on tightly-packed pebbles, which shift around slightly for a different kind of uneven terrain. AIST has previously demonstrated that their robots are able to walk on flat smooth slippery surfaces, however it will likely be some time before they’re as capable as Boston Dynamics’ BigDog [this terrifying sh*t -Ed.].

For the record, I’d like to note that visiting the Plastic Pals website was in no way the sexual adventure I thought it would be. Great name, Pals. Well picked, well picked (I’m jealous as all hell now, thanks). A video of the HRP-2 Promet is available after the jump, so you can watch our adaptive explorer in action. If you ask me, I think the Promet kind of walks like he’s got a stick up his butt, definitely he should be preparing for all the other bipedal robots to talk some mad sh*t.

Video after the jump:

Tummy rubs to Slashgear for the tip.