RN Shoes

[Humanoido]

This is a report on an experiment to put a new lining on the bottom of RN's feet. These "shoes" are made from very thin neoprene rubber with peel off paper on one side that has sticky glue. It was easy to place sections from the 2-inch wide roll onto the feet and trim with a scissors. The roll was purchased at a hardward store for about $8. The results are much improved walking, running, jumping, - so much you'd think there was a new kind of gyro installed. The rubber material absorbs a lot of vibration and takes impacts well. The standard walk forward and backward is greatly improved, and the fast walk is a lot more smooth and quiet. Routines where the feet are lifted and placed are very effective. However, most routines where the feet slide are not effective. I'm still experimenting with this interesting mod. Another use is to place sections of the material on the body armor to absorb some of the impacts due to falling.


The photo shows the new shoes experiment on my RN. It gives much improved performance on this hard ceramic glazed tile floor. However, slides such as the Robo-Moonwalk and gymnastics that require gliding will need some adjusting.

I'm continuing experiments and working on the design for a pair of dancing shoes, that will provide shock absorbtion, stability, and a variable degree of sliding.

Humanoido

[Gort]

There is an on-line article about the The First Kyosho Athlete Humanoid Cup at the robot magazine website. In the article one of the robots has rubber soles added to the feet so it would walk faster. It is flat on bottom and rounded at the edges. Lem Fugitt from Robot dreams wrote the article so maybe he can tell us more about what it is:?:

[DirtyRoboto]

I have left a good gap around my Nike RN1's so he can still slide on the edges of the feet.