HRP-4C robot gets a human-like gait

As robots move closer and closer towards uncanny valley status, it makes perfect sense that other segments of a robot will need to be perfected – case in point, AIST’s (Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology) HRP-4C robot that has been improved to have it walk in a manner that is not too far off that of a human being. You can always check out the video after the jump, where I feel that you can still tell it apart from your regular flesh-and-bone setup, and one thing that gives it away would be the amount of noise this thing makes.

It must be said that the HRP-4C should walk like a human since it was built to target the entertainment industry in the first place. At the moment, her toes support the legs longer during each stride, so that the legs can straighten out more for a more natural gait. I guess it will take some time before humanoid robots become impossible to tell apart from how we regular humans stride around.