Experts at the University of Chile in Santiago (UCS) are currently working on ways of making their robots fall as delicately as possible, if such a term can be placed alongside a mechanical device. Researchers recognize the fact that falling down poses the greatest risk to humanoid robots around the world, and that fear of these accidents is what forces producers to create bulky machines, able to stand on their feet under almost any circumstances – even though that was proven to limit mobility. They are currently testing a number of ways in which a robot could react when it senses that it's about to fall.

One of the paths of research that promise the most relevant results refers to the machines simply bending their feet under them when they go down. If they do that, it would appear that the power of the fall and the shock of the impact with the ground is diminished to a point where the sensitive electronics that are usually placed inside these machines suffer little to no damage following the incident. This type of research is especially important for the annual RoboCup event, which gathers together soccer-playing robots from around the world, in a massive competition.

The ability to survive the fall, recover, and get back up and into the game as fast as possible is paramount in this new type of game, but, often, participants have to withdraw their machines from the field on account of the “injuries” they suffer after losing balance and impacting the ground. The work being done at UCS will not prevent the falls themselves, the scientists say, but will rather ensure that the robot itself will be unharmed following it, and will be able to resume normal operation shortly after.

Expert Javier Ruiz-del-Solar, who is the UCS expert in charge of the research, tells that his team has looked at martial arts for inspiration, and has also studied the way athletes are thought to curl up in themselves when they impact the ground following a hit, or while running at high speeds. Using high-speed cameras, the team made some robots fall countless times from various angles and positions, and analyzed the strains that passed through them when they hit the ground. Following these measurements, they determined that pulling the legs in, in any type of fall, was the best way to go, NewScientist reports.