MIT researchers create robot controlled by exoskeleton wearing human

If the DARPA robotics challenge has taught us anything, it's that creating a robot that can do basic things a human is capable of is very difficult to do. Robots in the DARPA challenge routinely fall down performing the most basic tasks like walking and are far from where they need to be to help humans in the real world. A group of researchers at MIT have taken a different approach to making a robot that can perform human tasks.

In their approach, the robot is controlled by a human wearing an exoskeleton that provides the human controller with feedback on what the robot is doing and feeling. The controller wears the exoskeleton suit and a pair of LCD telepresence goggles.

This robot is completely dependent on the human for control and can't control its own movements in any way. With the human controller at the helm of the bot, it has very high levels of accuracy and dexterity. The force feedback system allows the human controller to feel and respond to the forces applied to the robot to keep the bot balanced and standing.

The puppet like robot has much higher levels of dexterity and balance than autonomous robots like the ATLAS robot that is fully self-controlled. This type of human controlled robot could be the first to help humans in an emergency situation.

SOURCE: Gizmodo