Humanoid robots hustle and shuffle

 You've noticed that humanoid robots built by hobbyists kinda shuffle when they walk. That's because many of them use "parallel linked legs" which use frames that look like 2 parallelograms, one on top of the other. The merits of this structure is that it allows the robot builders to make larger robots that are not as heavy and that are more stable.

 This structure doesn't fit robots that play soccer, but at least for competing in the ROBO-ONE battling competitions, it's become a must if you want to win. That's because the builders want longer arms on their robots which can only be proportionate to the length of the legs due to ROBO-ONE regulations. Now that the rule has been changed so that the distance between the tip of the left and right arms when open must not exceed 240% of the length of the legs (used to be 340%), the builders are eying to make taller robots without adding the weight.

  Recently the ROBO-ONE Light Class Competitionfor robots under 3kg (7 lbs) took place in Yokohama. The champion robot Fantom (photo below) gets to go to the 17th ROBO-ONE. Both Fantom and second place Gargoil-mini use the parallel link structure.

 Check out the final match between the 2 robots.  (Written  by IKETOMU )