Check out this robot, developed by Wörgötter and his fellow researchers in Germany, the “RunBot” is distinct and unlike the robots you’ve seen in movies and films. The RunBot has learned not only how to walk with a remarkable human-like lazy gait but also how to ascend higher terrains such as a ramp. The RunBot has previously been featured by Engadget, but this time researchers are hoping to make another breakthrough.

Here’s some info on the RunBot:

Until now, walking robots like Honda’s Asimo, which has an advertised ability to run four miles per hour, have relied on heavy-duty computational power, calculating the angle of the knees and ankles every moment of every step. RunBot, developed in the lab of computational neuroscientist Florentin Wörgötter of the University of Göttingen, takes a simpler, more human approach. ?Humans do not exert continuous control,? Wörgötter says. During parts of the walking process, we just fall forward and catch ourselves on the next step.

With a simple set of control circuits analyzing data from sensors in the legs and making minor adjustments along the way, the humanoid can walk and mimic almost the exact motion of our walking gait. Only when faced with an obstacle like a ramp does RunBot’s higher-level programming kick in to adjust its strides to walk over the new terrain.

The next big thing Wörgötter hopes to achieve is that his research invention will be able to bring it’s humaniod heel-toe strike into the field of medicine where hopefully in the future, these mechanical legs can help people with disabilities regain their mobility and freedom.

[via Discover Magazine]