Dancing robots

This appeared on Slashdot today, and I thought everyone here would get a kick out of it. Sony has made huge progress with their robots it seems, because this is absolutely amazing.

http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony_06.wmv

I hope the video is still up for a while, it might be getting Slashdotted pretty hard right now.

Edit: Well, it appears it finally did get Slashdotted into non-existance, so here are some random mirrors from google:

http://leech.dk/sony_06.wmv
http://xcomputerman.com/files/sony_06.wmv
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~twl/funny/sony_06.wmv

Edit2: Oh yeah, and here is Sony's page about the robot: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/top_nf.html

That is amazing holy crap.

Yeah. Awesome. Old video though. I can't remember the site right now (can't find it on google either), but there's a site that has a bunch of videos/information about the robots being developed. Kewl stuff. As soon as I think of the site, I'll post it.

For now, check this out.

That's scary. If they learn how to walk on their hands, we're all doomed. Luckily they're way too slow on their feet to be much of a threat. Little bastards.

Now I know why much of what Sony makes is crap. Their really talented employees are playing with dolls all day.

Bruno

If they learn how to walk on their hands, we're all doomed.

I, for one, welcome our handstanding robot overlords .

Ah HA! Here is that site I was talking about.

These robots are impressive, but aren't they all from the far east? Does no other country in the world take such an interest in building robots like these? I also wonder why companies like Honda are interested in robots.

I also wonder why companies like Honda are interested in robots

I'm sure you also wonder why cars like Honda are better built and cheaper than US cars

I suppose some of the work they do could filter down onto the factory floor. But I didn't think dancing was an important part of building a car.

Excellent stuff.

Was I the only person expecting them to break out into "YMCA" at any moment?

Gareth

But I didn't think dancing was an important part of building a car

Robots are also invited to the company holiday parties...

Does no other country in the world take such an interest in building robots like these?

The organizer for the robolympics was on the Screen Savers the other day, and he basically said that all the Japanese guests had the intricate graceful robots, and the Americans had the brutal Battlebot robots

One of the grad students here that I've worked with used to compete in RoboCup soccer -- programming Sony Aibo dogs to play soccer against one another. It seems that some of the most successful strategies are the more brute force ones. He was describing one hacked dog that, rather than doing animal style locomotion, instead tried to simulate "wheels", which is to say, it kneeled down and did circular motions with its legs. This gave it better control and speed than "normal" locomotion. That's American brute force engineering at its finest.

If you watch those robots closely, you'll see that they're mostly statically balanced, although they are shifting their weight to compensate for the arm motions, and stepping much like real dancers will do. Notably missing from any of those dance moves was anything dynamically unstable, such as jumping, falling into a splits, etc. If they figure out dynamic moves, then it will be time to start bowing to the robot overlords...

http://www.r50rd.co.uk/research/internal/v2i/engin/

Heh. Yeah. Seen that before. The videos are pretty good CG. It's quite funny how it's supposed to be a Mini as well.
Apparently there is going to be a Mini convertible announced so well you can work out the rest