A humanoid robotic that may drive a automotive might someday be used as a chauffeur, although its creator concedes that this may increasingly take at the least 50 years.
Most driverless vehicles work very in another way to a human driver, utilizing synthetic intelligence and customized mechanical techniques to immediately transfer the steering wheel and pedals. This method is way more environment friendly and less complicated than utilizing a humanoid robotic to drive, however it’s also bespoke for every explicit automotive.
Kento Kawaharazuka on the College of Tokyo and his colleagues have developed a humanoid robotic, referred to as Musashi, that may drive a automotive in the identical manner as a human. It has a human-like “skeleton” and “musculature”, in addition to cameras in every of its eyes and power sensors in its fingers and ft. Synthetic intelligence techniques work out what actions are wanted to drive the automotive and react to occasions equivalent to site visitors lights altering color or an individual stepping in entrance of the automotive.
The robotic can solely carry out a restricted vary of driving duties at current, equivalent to going ahead in a straight line or taking a right-hand flip, shifting at speeds of round 5 kilometres per hour on private roads. “The speed of the pedal or the velocity of the car is not high. Also the handling of the car is not fast compared to human beings,” says Kawaharazuka.
Musashi is a humanoid robotic that controls a automotive in the identical manner as a human
Kento Kawaharazuka et al. 2024
Nonetheless, Kawaharazuka hopes that when the system improves, it will likely be capable of work in any automotive, which might be helpful for when humanoid robots are routinely produced. “I’m not looking 10 or 20 years in the future, but I’m looking 50 or 100 years away,” he says.
“This study is potentially interesting for people developing humanoid robots, but doesn’t tell us much about autonomous driving,” says Jack Stilgoe at College Faculty London. “Self-driving cars don’t and shouldn’t drive like humans. The technology doesn’t have to rely on limbs and eyes so it can find other, safer, more useful ways to move through the world, relying on digital maps and dedicated infrastructures.”
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