For sure, but the paper is disingenuous in their description of the challenge they are supposedly tackling compared to what they actual achieve. Here's an excerpt from the introduction of the paper:
"Parkour is a popular athletic sport that involves humans traversing obstacles in a highly dynamic
manner like running on walls and ramps, long coordinated jumps, and high jumps across obstacles.
This involves remarkable eye-muscle coordination since missing a step can be fatal. Further, because
of the large torques exerted, human muscles tend to operate at the limits of their ability and limbs
must be positioned in such a way as to maximize mechanical advantage. Hence, margins for error
are razor thin, and to execute a successful maneuver, the athlete needs to make all the right moves.
Understandably, this is a much more challenging task than walking or running and requires years of
practice to master. Replicating this ability in robotics poses a massive software as well as hardware
challenge as the robot would need to operate at the limits of hardware for extreme parkour."
Well I was very conservative in choosing a healthy 10 year old as a point of comparison. A trained 10 year old can do a lot more. This guy was 7 at the time of filming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c__4ETI7aM
I'm not trying to diminish the accomplishment with respect to the state of the art of robotics, just bring some reality to the comparison against what humans are capable of.
noelwelsh|2 years ago
"Parkour is a popular athletic sport that involves humans traversing obstacles in a highly dynamic manner like running on walls and ramps, long coordinated jumps, and high jumps across obstacles. This involves remarkable eye-muscle coordination since missing a step can be fatal. Further, because of the large torques exerted, human muscles tend to operate at the limits of their ability and limbs must be positioned in such a way as to maximize mechanical advantage. Hence, margins for error are razor thin, and to execute a successful maneuver, the athlete needs to make all the right moves. Understandably, this is a much more challenging task than walking or running and requires years of practice to master. Replicating this ability in robotics poses a massive software as well as hardware challenge as the robot would need to operate at the limits of hardware for extreme parkour."
Here's an example of real parkour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lp1oS0vXg0
They aren't doing parkour, let alone "extreme" parkour.
johnthesecure|2 years ago
kaba0|2 years ago
a96|2 years ago
noelwelsh|2 years ago
I'm not trying to diminish the accomplishment with respect to the state of the art of robotics, just bring some reality to the comparison against what humans are capable of.