Researchers at Cornell, MIT and the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have developed a new breed of powered, energy efficient, two-legged robots with a surprisingly human gait. By applying concepts rooted in "passive-dynamic walkers"—devices that can walk down a gentle slope powered only by the pull of gravity—the engineers have crafted robots that can walk on level ground, in some cases using as little as one-half the wattage of a standard compact fluorescent light bulb.

Credit: NSF

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