MIT Researchers Teach a Robot Human Reflexes to Help it Complete Complex Tasks Like Walking

HERMES is a humanoid robot being developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where PhD students Joao Ramos and Albert Wang are teaching the robot human reflexes to help it complete complex tasks like walking.

The robot is controlled by a human wearing a rig that allows them operate HERMES, but also receive feedback from it as well. If HERMES is pushed off balance, for example, the operator will feel that and use their human instincts to hold themselves up, and in doing so, keep HERMES from falling as well.

The team developing HERMES hope the robot can be deployed to disaster situations where it would be too dangerous to send a human.