ROBBLER
(February 17, 2005)

To master the footsteps of a grown man
in twenty minutes beats twenty years,
and with its “passive-dynamic design”
beats us again with that robotic career.

Unmistakably human (takes only
an Asimo-tenth), it catches and falls
its way through historical grass, pavement,
moonrock – what next? Will it build future walls

or solutions? Will it fill its bucket-
head? Two hundred times a second it checks
its step, masters nothing else. It can walk
like a child (unwise), but tell me – what next?

1. 'Robbler' is a combination of the words 'robot' and 'toddler'.

2. The Toddler can learn to walk properly in approximately twenty minutes.

3. "Passive-dynamic design" means that this model of the walking robot uses less energy than previous models.

4. 'Asimo-tenth' refers to the Japanese robot 'Asimo' (not the science fiction novelist Asimov, though I'm sure that's why the Japanese chose the name 'Asimo' in the first place). The Toddler uses a tenth of the energy required by the Asimo model.

5. 'Bucket-head' is not a characteristic of the Toddler, but a different robot (the name of whom I've forgotten) contemporary to the robotics scene. This robot, having a 'bucket-head' emphasises how it doesn't use a 'brain' to figure out how to walk.