Human walking (the gait cycle) is a bipedal repetitive pattern that is extremely complex and does take a lot of learning and practice to perfect. Unfortunately the practice involves falling over a lot. After years of practice and many bruises later 8 stages of gait develop. They are called heel strike, foot flat, mid-stance, heel-off, toe-off and mid-swing and looks like this:
Darwin is a robot who learns from his mistakes and adjusts to his environment as he walks and the application is quite exciting. Potentially the complex programming and powerful processors could aid in understanding how the brain produces movement. This could also lead towards the development of new tech to aid those who have had a stroke or spinal cord injury to help walking.
Scary development or exciting? Let us know!