…at least, a lot more about his research.

Dr. Ding completed his PhD work on robotics this year just down the street at UIUC Mechanical Engineering department.  He has published results of his work on quadruped robots.

This summer he took the unusual step of releasing some of the "making of" video, recording some of the work as it happened. 

As he says, "publication videos only show success, and the process of advancement (including failures and lessons) is rarely shared among the robotics community. This video, therefore, serves as complementary material showcasing the inglorious yet authentic aspect of research."

This video is actually quite interesting, and not just for the unintended comedy of the fails.  I actually can understand how it works a lot better from these videos than from the successfully rigged demos of the official videos.

In fact, I really feel sorry for the poor baby Panther-bot when it gets all confused in some of the videos.

Perhaps there should be a channel just for robotics-in-progress videos.

Robot Wednesday