Students from the Virginia Tech College of Engineering’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) only needed $20,000 to build the first ever human-sized autonomous robot in the United States, but they did it. CHARLI (Cognitive Humanoid Autonomous Robot with Learning Intelligence) may look like a robot you’ve seen a hundred times before, but its ability to use all four of its limbs in unison is what makes it such a historic landmark.

Minus the face, it looks quite like the robot from the 2004 movie I, Robot (and story by Isaac Asimov), and that’s because it is partly based on it. The inspiration behind CHARLI is quite simple—we live in a world tailored for humans, and so it makes sense that our robot helpers will look and be able to do most of the things we can. At five-feet tall, it is a little bit shorter than the average human, but CHARLI will be able to walk, run, jump, open doors or squeeze through tight places. Basically, it will be able to mimic us in almost all ways.

Two prototypes of the robot have been designed to help with research. CHARLI L (Lightweight) is the one featured in the video, and as the name suggests, he can only perform the most basic of functions, like walking and moving his arms around. That explains why he looks a bit clumsy and frail, but the next in line is going to be CHARLI H (Heavy). He’s going to be no push-over, as he will not only be able to do the things advertised in the last paragraph, but he will have a bulkier frame too.

The goal, much like many robots of this kind, is for CHARLI to one day be able to help people around their homes or around the city. Dennis Hong, the associate professor of mechanical engineering and director of RoMeLa, refers to this plan as “The Jetsons Goal”, a reference to the 60s TV-show that took place in a robotic future. And it looks like we’re almost there.

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