Top view of robot OSCAR-X. 3.2.2.4.1   Robot Leg Amputation Mechanism – R-LEGAM  The main feature of the OSCAR-X is the improved design of robot’s legs, which aim for performing on-demand robot reconfiguration. Namely, the patented mechanism for robot leg amputation, R-LEGAM (DPMA-Az: 10 2009 006 934) [Jak09], is integrated for each of the OSCAR-X’s legs (Figure 3.9 and Figure 3.10).  The robot’s leg can be detached from the robot’s body by software command. This is especially helpful when some of the legs malfunction. So instead of carry-ing the malfunctioned legs during the rest of the mission, the legs can be ampu-tated to prevent any other future negative influence on the rest of the functional robotic system.  The in-situ reconfiguration of the hexapod robot OSCAR-X using biologically inspired approaches will be discussed in chapter 10. Fig. 3.10 (a) CAD design of Robot leg amputation mechanism: R-LEGAM; (b) R-LEGAM integrated on the robot’s body; (c) Robot’s leg detached from the robot’s body using the R-LEGAM mechanism. 3.3   Humanoid Robots Humanoid robots are robot demonstrators that have a human like appearance and are often used in robotics research, or as entertainment and service robots.  Humanoid robots are therefore used to study and research the complexity of  human walking and dynamic balancing, but also used for research in prosthesis development, human cognition, and human sensory information processing and perception. They have two legs, usually two arms and a head, and are equipped with lots of actuators and sensors including accelerometers, tilt sensors, cameras, pressure sensors on their feet, ultrasonic and infra-red sensors, etc. There are humanoid robot soccer matches organized by the RoboCup federa-tion [Rob10], where humanoid robots autonomously play soccer. Such competi-tions are important for the overall research in humanoid robots and emphasize the work on developing new algorithms for humanoid robot dynamic walking and stabilization, cooperation, localization on the field, etc. In chapter 6, research work is presented on self-stabilizing humanoid robot walking using biologically inspired algorithms.  3.4   State of the Art Humanoid Robots There are many humanoid robots known nowadays (March 2010) that are con-sidered state-of-the-art due to the number of features they exhibit. Here are some of the famous humanoid robots: Nasa’s “Robonaut 2” (R2) [NAS10], “TOPIO 3.0” [TOS09], “ASIMO” developed by HONDA [HON07], “Albert-Hubo” [HAN05] by Hanson Robotics, and “NAO” by Aldebaran Robotics [ALD10]. (Figure 3.11) Fig. 3.11 State of the art humanoid robots: (a) “Robonaut 2”; (b) “TOPIO 3.0”; (c) “ASIMO”; (d) “Albert-Hubo”; (e) “NAO”. The robot “Robonaut2,” nicknamed as “R2,” is a dexterous and technologically advanced humanoid robot developed by NASA and General Motors. The goal is to have this robot accompany the space missions and work side-by-side with  humans. The “R2” has a torso equipped with a head and two arms but is without legs.  “TOPIO 3.0” is the table tennis playing robot, designed and constantly im-proved by the company Tosio. The robot is said to use artificial intelligence algo-rithms to continuously improve its playing skill level.  Robot “ASIMO,” developed by HONDA, is one of the most famous humanoid robots and is mostly used for entertainment purposes. This robot can detect faces, shake hands with humans, walk up and down the stairs, run, and even perform small jumps while running. Robot “Albert-Hubo” is built on “Hubo 2,” a “KHR-4” [HUB03] robot model, and is the next generation of the “KHR-3” humanoid robot with Albert Einstein’s head mounted on its body. The robot is used for artificial muscle actuator re-search, autism therapy, cognitive science research, etc. 3.5   Humanoid Robot Demonstrator - S2-HuRo (Self Stabilizing Humanoid Robot) 19 “NAO” is commercially available research humanoid robot platform equipped with a variety of actuators and sensors like: cameras, gyrometers, accelerometers, IR, and sonar sensors. It has a visual programming interface with which robotic movements can easily be developed. “NAO” robots are also in the RoboCup hu-manoid soccer games in the NAO - RoboCup standard league.  Humanoid robots come in various sizes, ranging from small robots like NAO robot - 58 cm up to full size robots like TOPIO 3.0 - 188cm size (Figure 3.11).  3.5   Humanoid Robot Demonstrator - S2-HuRo (Self Stabilizing Humanoid Robot) The S2-HuRo robot was developed for the research on biologically inspired tech-niques for humanoid robot stabilized walking, presented in chapter 6. S2-HuRo is based on the “ROBONOVA-1” (Figure 3.12) [HIT06] robot kit with “HSR-8498HB” digital servos, “MRC-3024” servo control, and integrated I/O board.  This robot has been modified extensively and specially tuned, taking the final form and construction as shown in Figure 3.12. The modified robot is called the S2-HuRo (Self Stabilizing Humanoid Robot) presented in Figure 3.13 (a)-(d). The robot is built of the following hardware ele-ments: embedded system - 多足步行混合机器人英文文献和中文翻译(3):http://www.youerw.com/fanyi/lunwen_31396.html