The house is inspired in the Romaní carriages that wandered through Europe in the 18th century, equipped with everything you need to live with minimal impact to the environment. Except this one walks like a robotic cockroach and will make you feel like a gypsy Darth Vader.

• Height: 3.5 metres
• Width: 3.5 metres
• Length: 3.72 metres
• Weight: 1200 kg
• Max speed: 60 metres/hour
• Component list:
• Plating and framework wood and plywood
• Legs made of steel and mechanical components
• 12 linear actuators
• solar panels
• micro windmills
• polycarbonate plates
• interior equipment

Danish designers N55 hope that these $US51,000 Walking House will eventually form Walking Villages. Damn hippies. [Walking House]

If you are fortunate enough to actually ride in the Walking Beast, don’t expect heart-pounding, edge of your seat thrills. Its Chevy V8 engine only musters up enough power to move the steel behemoth along at around 8 kph–although it does shake the ground up to 150 metres away with each step. Montesano is planning on making some upgrades to the Walking Beast in the near future, including an elevator system to load passengers. Perhaps he should start touring the country offering rides at US$10 a pop–sort of like a nerdy adult version of pony rides at a state fair. [Pop Sci]

The essential but counterintuitive concept is that, to walk like a man, the robot must “fall forward.” Flame derives information from its “organ of balance,” which it then applies to things like stance using seven motors. Springs in its joints make the movements smoother, as you see in the video above.

Flame will be used not only to further robotics research, but to help diagnose orthopedic problems in humans as well. Me, I’m waiting for Flame 2. Word on the street is that it’ll be able to pull off, yes that’s right, the Electric Boogaloo. [PhysOrg via KurzweilAI]

UPDATE: A reader named Jerry just told me about an earlier bipedal robot from Cornell that supposedly used the same principles to walk. As you can see in the video below, on the upside, it has arms; on the downside, it looks like it’s been using the arms to do the 12-oz curl if you know what I’m sayin’. Thanks Jerry!

The device’s lithium-ion battery only last two hours on a charge, so don’t expect Grandma to run a full marathon, but some time moseying around the retirement village while looking all cyberpunk will surely make her coolest geriatric in Del Boca Vista. The Walking Assist Device will be demoed this week at Intex Osaka—the press release for that is below. [Honda via New Launches]

Honda to Showcase Experimental Walking Assist Device at BARRIER FREE 2008

TOKYO, Japan, April 22, 2008- Honda Motor Co., Ltd. will showcase an experimental model of a walking assist device which could support walking for the elderly and other people with weakened leg muscles(*), at the International Trade Fair on Barrier Free Equipments & Rehabilitation for the Elderly & the Disabled (BARRIER FREE 2008) which will be held at Intex Osaka, Friday, April 25 through Sunday, April 27, 2008 (Organizers: Osaka Prefecture Council of Social Welfare and Television Osaka Inc.)

Honda began research of a walking assist device in 1999 with a goal to provide more people with the joy of mobility. Currently, the device has entered into the feasibility stage.

The cooperative control technology utilized for this device is a unique Honda innovation achieved through the cumulative study of human walking just as the research and development of technologies was conducted for Honda’s advanced humanoid robot, ASIMO. Applying cooperative control based on the information obtained from hip angle sensors, the motors provide optimal assistance based on a command from the control CPU. With this assist, the user’s stride will be lengthened compared to the user’s normal stride without the device and therefore the ease of walking is achieved.

The compact design of the device was achieved with flat brushless motors and a control system developed by Honda. In addition, a simple design to be worn with a belt around the hip and thigh was employed to help achieve overall weight as light as approximately 2.8kg. As a result, the device reduces the user’s load and can be fit to different body shapes.

The research of this device is being conducted by the Fundamental Technology Research Centre of Honda R&D Co., Ltd. in Wako, Saitama.

Honda is planning to offer interested attendees an opportunity to wear and experience this walking assist device at the Honda booth at BARRIER FREE 2008.
(*) This device is designed for people who are still capable of walking on their own.

It’s designed to use gravity to assist its strides, tipping its feet to spring off the ground much like our legs do, and the team estimates it’s about as efficient at walking as we are. Honda’s Asimo, for example, uses something like ten times as much energy, or so estimates the team. Sadly this new record is unofficial, as “there’s a lot of rigmarole” in getting Guinness in, apparently. Shame! All that striding for no official record. [Physorg]

Ad Dugdale celebrates that there’s finally a bike to give the Bitchcruiser a proper ass-kicking. We celebrate the sweet, awkward video of someone riding the thing after the jump.

Yeah, we’d rather walk. I mean, walk walk, not bike walk or whatever. [arkitip via newlaunches]