Let me tell you right from the start that there is more than meets the eye with the CHARLI robot, as it is the first untethered, autonomous, full-sized, walking humanoid built in America so far. It is really impressive, as the robot has all four limbs working on artificial tendon-like joints, which make it move very human-like. The students are currently working on making CHARLI speak as well.

The main man behind the building of this robot is doctoral student Jeakweon (“J.K.”) Han. Dennis Hong, who hopes that one day a future generation of CHARLI robots will be able to live among humans like the Rosie robot-maid from “The Jetsons” cartoon series. If I recall well, Rosie had wheels instead of fully functional legs, but I guess it is good that J.K doesn't know this detail, or else we wouldn't be talking about CHARLI right now.

“The environment we live in is designed for humans: The step size of stairs, the height of door handles, etc., are designed by humans for humans,” Hong said. “Thus for a robot to live among us and to serve us, it needs human size and form. Thus humanoids. But, manipulation with hands, perception, intelligence, and autonomy are all important and difficult research problems that need to be addressed.”

True, it is quite hard for a robot to fit right into our lifestyles, especially the way they do in cartoons. But since we humans are the ones building them, I think the robots will simply adapt to certain situations. The CHARLI robot pictured here will be participating in the RoboCup in Singapore, as the students are sure they will manage to develop its moving systems in time for it. Right now, CHARLI is capable of only walking on flat (known) surfaces.

Read about the students' plans to make it one day able to open doors, kick, pick up objects and more on the dedicated website here. CHARLI clip after the break.




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