Robotic Cheetah Now Runs and Jumps Unteathered

 Robotics  

MIT researchers have developed an algorithm for jumping for their robotic cheetah, a sleek, four-legged assemblage of gears, batteries, and electric motors that weighs about as much as its feline counterpart.

Researchers at MIT have developed an algorithm for jumping that they've successfully implemented in their robotic cheetah.

The key to the bounding algorithm is in programming each of the DARPA M3-funded robot's legs to exert a certain amount of force in the split second during which it hits the ground, in order to maintain a given speed: In general, the faster the desired speed, the more force must be applied to propel the robot forward. In experiments the robot sprinted up to 10 mph and MIT researchers estimate the robot may eventually reach speeds of up to 30 mph.

"Most robots are sluggish and heavy, and thus they cannot control force in high-speed situations. That’s what makes the MIT cheetah so special: You can actually control the force profile for a very short period of time, followed by a hefty impact with the ground, which makes it more stable, agile, and dynamic."

“Many sprinters, like Usain Bolt, don’t cycle their legs really fast,” Sangbae Kim, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, says. “They actually increase their stride length by pushing downward harder and increasing their ground force, so they can fly more while keeping the same frequency.”

The cheetah-bot is able to handle rougher terrain, such as bounding across a grassy field. In treadmill experiments, the team found that the robot handled slight bumps in its path, maintaining its speed even as it ran over a foam obstacle.

Moreover, the cheetah robot runs on electric motors, unlike the Boston Dynamics Wildcat bot.  “Our robot can be silent and as efficient as animals. The only things you hear are the feet hitting the ground. This is kind of a new paradigm where we’re controlling force in a highly dynamic situation. Any legged robot should be able to do this in the future,” states Kim.

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The MIT Cheetah 2 uses a custom-designed electric motor engineered by Jeffrey Lang, the Vitesse Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT and an amplifier designed by David Otten, a principal research engineer in MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics.

“Most robots are sluggish and heavy, and thus they cannot control force in high-speed situations,” Kim says. “That’s what makes the MIT cheetah so special: You can actually control the force profile for a very short period of time, followed by a hefty impact with the ground, which makes it more stable, agile, and dynamic.”

MIT issued this press release before the research will be officially presented at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Chicago (IROS).


SOURCE  MIT

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