In the last few decades, the field of mechanical engineering especially robotics has seen a lot of development. The engineers and researchers have been coming up with products and designs that are can take the comfort to an unimaginable level. The robots that were once a part of human imagination are now a reality and amazingly, if everything goes as planned, we will soon have human created sub-sets of ourselves – the humanoid robots. The artificial intelligence and sense of balance that is being fed into these robots is what makes them different and better from the robots of the past. These robots can walk, act and respond through Artificial intelligence (AI) programmed into their chips.



One such humanoid robot that has recently gained popularity is CHARLI created by Dennis Hong, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of Virginia Tech's Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory. Dr. Hong has been known to have a different taste in robot designing and he has created everything from a multi-legged robot to a robot with no legs at all. This is his first attempt at creating 20-legged robot and impressive will totally be an understatement for his latest invention. Best known for CHALRI; which stands for Cognitive Humanoid Autonomous Robot with Learning Intelligence is the closest copy of the human body. Other humanoid robots rely on DC motors for movement of joints which in turn are made up of rotating machine parts. Whereas the movement in CHARLI is inspired by the muscle expansion and contraction movement in a human body and thus employ an indigenously made complex system of pulleys and springs. This new kind of the movement system employed by Dr. Hong and his students took one and a half year to complete and was constructed under $20,000 USD.



Dr. Wong and his team have already started working on a newer and better version of CHARLI which will be called CHARLI-H. While the focus in the new humanoid robot will be on his legs and improving its walking mechanism, the overall movement mechanism will also be upgraded with better design. As per the latest known details: legs of CHARLI-H will be powered with the use of linear actuators. Using linear actuators for legs is not new in the field of robotics. Engineers and creators have used them in many models of robots including humanoids, but none of them has been truly successful. It will be interesting to see how the CHARLI team implements this technology and makes it successful.



Dr. Hong is highly confident and has ample of faith in his team. He is all set to make the next generation of humanoid robots. That being said, how much success he will achieve is a question that only time can answer.