>>509713564This is substantially incorrect. While the controller tells it
>Go this directionit doesn't tell it all the things it needs to do to go in that direction. If you tell an RC car to go forward, it spins one motor, so pressing the button that makes the motor go forward requires zero interpretation. The RC car doesn't have to understand anything about going forward, it can simply flick the motor to "on" and go. Only the human needs to know anything.
However a walking robot cannot do that, because "go forward" involves multiple components working in unison to achieve the desired effect. One leg has to lift, the other has to push off, the first leg has to come down, then the next leg has to come up and go forward, etc etc, requiring different specific activation of the motors in a sequence where timing matters and it's not all in the same direction at the same time. You can't make a robot walk by telling it "contract" or "relax," it has to do both in proportion. And all the button can tell it is "move forward," then the robot has to figure out the individual parts, in sequence, with adjustments for terrain. For instance in the OP the robot is walking around on a ramp, not flat ground, so it has to adjust its walk cycle to handle the gradient.
The robot has to know all of that, because all the human on the controller can be expected to do is press "go forward." No controller exists that would let you do it manually, with no thinking from the robot.
This is what's revolutionary about these robots. They do still need to be told "go forward," but they can figure out everything from there.