Speedy OutRunner Robot Cartwheels Its Way on Kickstarter

 Robotics  

Robotics Unlimited hopes to make the world's first legged running robot, the OutRunner commercially available to the public with a Kickstarter campaign.   The robot which moves with a cartwheel-like motion may rush ship by December, depending on the company's funding.

With OutRunner, a Kickstarter project, Robotics Unlimited hopes to make the world's first legged running robot commercially available to the public.   The robot which moves with a cartwheel-like motion may rush ship by December, depending on the company's funding.

The 20 mph capable OutRunner has other amazing capabilities, including self-balancing, running on various terrain and a simple to operate remote.  The battery life on the robot is up to two hours.  Robotics Unlimited has also made the system for simple upgrading in the future.

"There is simply no other robot with such capabilities and so easy and fun to play with."

"There is simply no other robot with such capabilities and so easy and fun to play with," the company claims. "All you need to do is just press the accelerator and steer it wherever you want it to go; it's that easy."

Robotics Unlimited is a spinoff of the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) where a team of scientists and engineers have been working for years toward the development of walking and running robots.

Sebastien Cotton, Ph.D., founder and CEO is an internationally recognized scientist whose research work has been published in international robotics conferences and journals. His expertise is in software development, control algorithms and physics-based simulation. He has worked on some of the most prestigious robots such as Robonaut and M2V2, and led, over the past four years, a team of scientists and engineers to develop the FastRunner robot.

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OutRunner robots are biologically-inspired; they emulate the behavior of legged animals by reproducing their step pattern and having a similar mass / length distribution. By having a center of mass lower than the leg axis of rotation, OutRunner robots exploit a buoyancy effect, making them inherently stable and eliminating the need for expensive sensors and complex control algorithms.

Energy efficiency is achieved by exploiting the same feature observed in legged animals; using legs as an energy storage system allows for fluctuation and conservation (and not losses) of potential and kinetic energy during running. Steering is achieved by shifting the center of mass of the robot, forcing it to lean to one side, which in result induces a turn (similarly to what happens on a bicycle).

The core version is able to run up to 10 mph and has an battery life of 1 hour. It is controlled via a standard remote control. The robot has 6 legs and is equipped with a Universal Camera Mount (camera not included, 1/4" thread). If you want to have more sensors but don't have the budget yet for the Performance version, no worries, we will offer sensor upgrades that will allow you to get more out of your OutRunner Core. This version is about 1.5 foot tall and weighs a little bit less than 3 pounds.




SOURCE  Outrunner on Kickstarter

By 33rd Square

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