Question: How do you make a robot function like a human and how long does it take.

Leah Edwards answered on 1 May 2020:

There are lots of different robots to carry out different tasks. For example, the robots where I work are used to assemble electronics and don’t look like people at all – they don’t need legs so they’re just a big ‘arm’ with some tools on the end.

The problem with making robots that walk like a human is that it is very tricky for them to keep their balance. If you look on YouTube, you can find lots of videos of robots falling over! This is because our brains are doing lots of complex calculations for us to keep our balance without us even knowing, and you need a lot of sensors and programming to replicate it in a robot. However, there are competitions like the ‘Robocup’ (robots playing football) where the robots function a bit like a human – for example, walking around and kicking a ball. These robots might take more than a year to develop and program.