MIT’s Cheetah ‘bot walks up debris-littered stairs without visual sensors #MakeRobotFriend
Oh man, this Cheetah bot looks and moves awful lot like like the ‘Dogs’ from Black Mirror Metalhead. I hope they are being kind and conscientious in the development.
After making its stage debut at TC Sessions Robotics in Boston last year, the third iteration of MIT’s Cheetah robot is back with some impressive new tricks. Associate Professor Sangbae Kim will officially demonstrate the Cheetah 3’s new capabilities at Madrid’s International Conference on Intelligent Robots in October, but in the meantime, we’ve got a sneak peek via laboratory video.
The Cheetah is doing all of this without any cameras or other visual on-board sensors, using what the team refers to as “blind locomotion,” essentially feeling its way up the stairs. So, why rob such a sophisticated robot of something as seemingly essential as computer vision?
The robot utilizes a pair of new algorithms — contact detection and model-predictive control — which help it recover its balance in the case of slippage. The ability helps the robot determine whether to have a leg in the in air or on the ground at a given time, allowing it to tenuously but tenaciously ascend the stairs.
Learn more and check out the video from MIT on YouTube
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