MIT Cheetah Robot Lands the Running Jump

Published on May 28, 2015

In a leap for robotic development, the MIT researchers who built a robotic cheetah have now trained it to see and jump over hurdles as it runs — making this the first four-legged robot to run and jump over obstacles autonomously. (Learn more: http://bit.ly/1JYy1bD)

Watch the MIT cheetah run autonomously outside: http://youtu.be/XMKQbqnXXhQ

Video: Haewon Park, Patrick Wensing and Sangbae Kim

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MIT Builds Robot Cheetah with new Bounding Algorithm

Published on Sep 15, 2014

MIT researchers have developed an algorithm for bounding that they've successfully implemented in a robotic cheetah. (Learn more:http://mitsha.re/1uHoltW)

The key to the bounding algorithm is in programming each of the 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.

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

This work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

MIT Cheetah robot 2 run fast and jump high
http://youtu.be/vUmLwKGiyf8

Sangbae Kim: Inspired by Nature - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSWAb...

Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
Additional footage: Hae-Won Park and José-Luis Olivares
Music sampled from "Spooky" by Alastair Cameron
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ala...
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

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MIT Robotic Cheetah

Published on Sep 15, 2014

MIT researchers have developed an algorithm for bounding that they've successfully implemented in a robotic cheetah. (Learn more:http://mitsha.re/1uHoltW)

The key to the bounding algorithm is in programming each of the 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.

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

This work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

MIT Cheetah robot 2 run fast and jump high
http://youtu.be/vUmLwKGiyf8

Sangbae Kim: Inspired by Nature - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSWAb...

Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
Additional footage: Hae-Won Park and José-Luis Olivares
Music sampled from "Spooky" by Alastair Cameron
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ala...
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

• Category

  • Science & Technology

• License

  • Standard YouTube License

Video: MIT Introduces "Squishy Robots"

Published on Jul 14, 2014

A new phase-changing material built from wax and foam developed by researchers at MIT is capable of switching between hard and soft states. Learn more: http://mitne.ws/1wlz4bn.

Robots built from this material would be able to operate more like biological systems with applications ranging from difficult search and rescue operations, squeezing through rubble looking for survivors, to deformable surgical robots that could move through the body to reach a particular point without damaging any of the organs or vessels along the way.

Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News
Additional video clips courtesy of Nadia Cheng

Japan's Team Schaft Wins Darpa 2013 Robotics Challenge!

Published on Dec 22, 2013

A Japanese-designed robot that can be used in disaster zones has won a contest in the US state of Florida.

16 teams competed in the 2-day DARPA Robotics Challenge that ended on Saturday.

The event, organized by a US Defense Department research institute, aims to set a standard for robotics technology for use in emergency situations dangerous to humans, such as nuclear accidents and natural disasters.

The teams were judged by the performance of their bipedal robots.

The winning robot was entered by the venture firm SCHAFT. The venture has been acquired by the IT giant Google.

SCHAFT's model showed off a steady performance throughout the competition by climbing over a mound of debris step by step. It won first place by a wide margin.

The Japanese team's rivals in the contest included robots from NASA and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as teams from Hong Kong and South Korea.

Teams that had excellent performance are awarded funds to be used for developing robots. All teams will participate in the competition's final round in 2014.

Modular Robot Cubes Can Change Their Own Geography!

Published on Oct 3, 2013

Known as M-Blocks, the robots are cubes with no external moving parts. Nonetheless, they're able to climb over and around one another, leap through the air, roll across the ground, and even move while suspended upside down from metallic surfaces.

Inside each M-Block is a flywheel that can reach speeds of 20,000 revolutions per minute; when the flywheel is braked, it imparts its angular momentum to the cube. On each edge of an M-Block, and on every face, are cleverly arranged permanent magnets that allow any two cubes to attach to each other.

Read more: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/si...

Autonomous robotic plane flies indoors at MIT

Published on Aug 9, 2012 by MITNewsOffice

For decades, academic and industry researchers have been working on control algorithms for autonomous helicopters — robotic helicopters that pilot themselves, rather than requiring remote human guidance. Dozens of research teams have competed in a series of autonomous-helicopter challenges posed by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI); progress has been so rapid that the last two challenges have involved indoor navigation without the use of GPS.

But MIT's Robust Robotics Group — which fielded the team that won the last AUVSI contest — has set itself an even tougher challenge: developing autonomous-control algorithms for the indoor flight of GPS-denied airplanes. At the 2011 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), a team of researchers from the group described an algorithm for calculating a plane's trajectory; in 2012, at the same conference, they presented an algorithm for determining its "state" — its location, physical orientation, velocity and acceleration. Now, the MIT researchers have completed a series of flight tests in which an autonomous robotic plane running their state-estimation algorithm successfully threaded its way among pillars in the parking garage under MIT's Stata Center.

Read more: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/autonomous-robotic-plane-flies-indoors-081...

Video: Melanie Gonick, MIT News

Additional footage courtesy of: Adam Bry, Nicholas Roy, Abraham Bachrach of the Robust Robotics Group, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Special thanks to the Office of Naval Research under MURI N00014-09-1-1052 and the Army Research Office under the Micro Autonomous System Technologies program.