Walking robot offers clues to human movement

Previously, RunBot the robot's inventors said the 30-centimetre-tall machine could only walk forward on flat surfaces and would topple over when encountering a slope. But using an infrared eye, the robot can now detect an incline in its path and adjust its gait after four or five attempts to navigate up the slope, researchers said.

The machine, which simply falls over until it learns to walk uphill, takes 3-4 stride lengths per second, a touch faster than the normal human gait of about 1.5 to 2.5 stride lengths per second.

Read full story in Reuters