Sneakerhead Robot Ditches Flat Feet for Arches

Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed what they claim to be most efficient walking robot ever to have been built. It's earned that moniker because it's been able to shed the flat feet that have stereotyped walking robots for generations.

"Flat-footed robots demonstrated that walking was possible," says Aaron Ames, director of the Georgia Tech lab and a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, speaking to the school's news center.

"But they're a starting point, like a propeller-powered airplane. It gets the job done, but it's not a jet engine. We want to build something better, something that can walk up and down stairs or run across a field."