Is the important thing to autonomous cars that don't run over pedestrians and crash into telephone poles a humanoid robot on the wheel? A bunch of researchers on the University of Tokyo believes so and lays out their argument in a newly published technical article this week.
The researchers, one among whom is a consultant to Toyota, developed and trained a “musculoskeletal humanoid” called Musashi to drive a small electric automotive on a test track.
Equipped with two cameras that replace human eyes, Musashi can “see” the road ahead in addition to the views reflected within the automotive's side mirrors. With his mechanical hands, he can turn the automotive key, pull the handbrake and switch on the indicator. And because of his non-slip “feet”, Musashi can press the accelerator or brake pedal.
After “teaching” Musashi tips on how to handle the automotive’s steering wheel using raw data from sensors, the researchers managed to get the robot to show a corner at an intersection while obeying traffic lights, they claim.
However, there are limitations.
For example, Musashi only gently took his “foot” off the brake pedal to take the turn, relatively than tapping the accelerator. This was as a consequence of technical limitations and excessive caution, the researchers say – but in consequence, the turn took about two minutes.
Musashi used the accelerator in one other experiment, the researchers say, but depending on the gradient of the road, he had problems maintaining a continuing speed.
So there's clearly still some work to be done. Fortunately, researchers say they're as much as the challenge and have plans to develop a next-generation robot and software. Perhaps in a number of a long time, Musashi might be behind the wheel of your next Tokyo taxi.
