The last few years have seen the creation of a large number of quadruped and bipedal robots. Many have been inspired by Spot and Atlas from Boston Dynamics. These, in turn, can be traced back to Sparko and Elektro, which became famous around 1940. Atlas paved the way for the so-called general-purpose or universal robots that are now conquering the market, from H1 to Figure 01. They are not yet truly universal, but they are getting there. Most robotic quadrupeds don’t have a real head. A few talented hobbyists have produced their own with a 3D printer. This can be referred to as robot enhancement. Most robotic bipeds have a head that looks creepy or repulsive. This will be a key design problem in the coming years. It may be that people will quickly get used to ugly heads. But it would probably help with adoption and acceptance if the heads were nice to look at and had convincing facial expressions. After the huge technological advances that have been made in recent years, with new approaches to motor skills and the integration of speech models, what is needed most is a change in design.
BY OLIVER BENDEL
