There's a new video of the SDR-4X on the same site:

http://www.TokyoDV.com/news/SonySDR-4XRobot.html

It's 5MB and kind of 'muddy' but does a great job in showing the robots abilities. And it has a cute Japanese girl in it ;)

Pat notes: "I'll bet a better design would be, maybe, spiker-like."

There's a problem with that. When the robots become sapient and win civil rights, they'll of course want to start wearing clothing, and think of how hard it would be to find eight-legged jeans.

Gotta think these things through. :-)

amazing links Dan. Thanks. I too am an in jawdrop mode. They have...robots... that walk. Holy crap man. That's cool. Did you notice they walk??? Bipedal locomotion. I love the link where he knocks it down and it stands up.

And they can walk!!

I've been bookmarking links to videos of the unstoppable Sony SDR-4x for a while now. It's the fourth generation in the Sony Dream Robot series, created to be the successor to Sony's increasingly ugly line of Aibo robot pets. According to the BBC, the SDR-4x sings, dances, surfs, navigates thru obstacles, recognizes faces and expressions, can understand short conversations, and knows more than 60,000 words.

Right now it costs as much as a luxury car, but 10 bucks says this'll be the Furby of Christmas 2012. Quite a long way from the wall-bumping, drink-tray-holding robots of my youth. I can't see stuff like this without my jaw dropping in recognition that the kind of robots I dreamed about as a kid are actually becoming real.

The Sony looks much more graceful. The Honda is almost comical in its oldmangottaholditin walk.

Huh, cool, Ernie. Thanks!

Ditto the old man look of both robots. Why must they look human? I'll bet a better design would be, maybe, spiker-like.

The Honda one looks like an old man trying to rush to the bathroom to take a poo.

I don't believe it's really a robot - looks more like a proof of concept for range of motion, to me. A remote-controlled puppet.

But check out Honda's entry to the same show. I think theirs has a bit more spunk:

http://www.tokyodv.com/news/RoboDex2002Asimo.html

Pat,

the advantage is that by keeping the joint flexed well within its full range of motion, it has the room to make any adjustments it needs to keep standing and balanced. If the floor moved suddenly, or maybe it was contacted in a way that affected its center of gravity it could adjust in a fraction of a second and not fall over.

I wonder what the engineering advantage of bent knees is. The thing's knees are bent pretty much all the time.

Way to bust a move.

Looks like its pausing to pose for the photographers.