Engineering students from the Robotics & Mechanisms
Laboratory (RoMeLa) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, have developed a bipedal
humanoid robot using the National Instruments LabVIEW graphical
system design platform, according to RoMeLa. The Dynamic
Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence (DARwIn) was originally
developed to study human locomotion for the research and
development of prosthetic limbs. DARwIn achieves full range of
motion and accurately imitates human movement so effectively that
it was quickly modified to play soccer for entry into RoboCup, an
international robotic soccer competition created to promote
research in robotics, artificial intelligence, and related fields.
As a result, it has been accepted as the first-ever U.S. entry into
RoboCup in the humanoid division.
