The bumpy road to a walking robot
The history of bipedal robots is bedeviled by the complexity of human locomotion
In 2013 a bipedal robot named MARLO walked several stiff steps across an engineering department lab at the University of Michigan. After stopping the robot from careening into a wall, one of its creators pumped his fist and said, “Yes!” with a grin that on its own shouted excitement.
MARLO couldn’t step over obstacles, couldn’t stop itself from walking into a door, and stumbled badly while walking outside, but still, MARLO was officially the first robot to walk, without a stabilizing rod, like a human on its own two legs.
Engineers have been attempting to build a bipedal robot like MARLO since the 1950s. Efforts to build humanoid automata, though, have been around much longer, starting at least at least as early as 250 BCE. Traces of designs, or in some cases simply stories related to these devices have trickled out of the early histories of India, Greece, China, and Egypt.
Most of these devices were created for entertainment: tiny figures that danced through intricate clocks, or props that could be used on the stage. The Greeks used them for drama and delight. Practical applications came later, out of the Arab world, most notably in the thirteenth century with the publication of polymath Ismail al-Jazari The Book of Knowledge of…
