So..... it looks like i have some time before the test pilot is finished her training.
Old thread, spambumped I know. Anyway...
When I was part of a startup making giant robots (24' bipeds, not spiders), the team had the half-hearted goal of getting the first mech to walk before the boss's firstborn did. Sadly, the neural network inside a baby was far more impressive and finely tuned to its body than one in the mech. Though it's kind of cheating, 'cause it had been pre-programmed. 3 billion years of evolution and all that.