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The left and right front/hind legs moving in sync looks unnatural. I wonder if this is ultimately the best way to distribute weight and balance of a four-legged object, and why living four-legged creatures do not run like this?

Alternatively, would it be better if the robots also ran more life-like, or is there a benefit (besides the ease and simplicity of engineering the physics) to the robots running like this? I.e. will they ultimately have the robots running more life-like?

3 comments

this is how cheetahs run http://giphy.com/gifs/animal-running-7lz6nPd56aHh6

Actually, if you slow it down, the left/right legs are stil not quite perfectly in sync (at least not in this case):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuyeVN7PuTM

Correct, and it's clear the machine does a little correction cycle after it lands. Very cool though. Now they need to work this into the pathfinding algorithms.

That's how they run flat out. Do they alter their gait like horses, I wonder?

Rabbits run (or is it hop?) like that - front paws side by side, rear paws side by side.

I noticed the opposite in this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE3fmFTtP9g

Which is to say, it looks more natural and more balanced with the legs out of sync.