MIT's cheetah robot can do back flips and run fast

Robotic animals now surprise no one. Most of all succeeded in creating four-legged robots developers from Boston Dynamics. This company also showed two-legged robots who learned to overcome obstacles, and not only to step over them, but even to jump.



But Boston Dynamics has competitors, in particular, developers from MIT. The other day, they showed a miniature cheetah robot (it is not very similar to a real cheetah), which was taught not only to move forward, backward, sideways, but also to flip back. As far as is known, other robots (except toy ones) are not able to do this.



The robot moves very quickly - twice as fast as a human goes. If a robot is dropped, even on its back, it can very quickly rise “on its feet” with the help of a technique that is very similar to that shown by fallen masters of martial arts. But the most interesting skill of this robot is to jump back in the air, the opposite flip.



The developers claim that the robot is made resistant to external influences. It is quite durable. In addition, even if his jump ends in a puddle, nothing will happen to the mechanism (at least if the puddle is not very deep).

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The structure of the robot is modular, which allows to reduce the cost of construction. Mini-cheetah got three servo for each of the paws. They are inexpensive and can be quickly replaced if desired. “You can assemble parts of a robot like Lego,” said one of its creators.



By the way, the current version can be compared with the prototype from 2013. The difference is striking.





Researchers will show the design features of the device in May at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation event. Now developers are busy creating other quadruped systems. In total, as far as can be judged, there will be 10 of them.



“One of the reasons for creating a robot is the opportunity to experiment with it, to try various unusual tricks, since the system is strong enough and does not fall apart at all if the external influence is applied to it. If the accident does happen, the robot can be easily restored, ”said a representative of the development team.



Tests include the development of new algorithms for the "behavior" of the robot, which is able to move very quickly, performing complex maneuvers.



"In the end, I hope we will be able to hold races with robots, of course, with obstacles, where each team will control its own robot, which uses its own algorithm, and we will determine which strategy is more effective," the developers say.



The creators of the robot are proud that they were able to rethink the design of their robot animals. Previous prototypes were "solid", integrated together. The new "cheetahs" are modular, as already reported above. And if the developer wanted to change something in the previous version, he would have had to radically change the design. With the "cheetah", everything is simpler - a new part of a different design is installed instead of the old one (for example, it can be manipulators) and that’s all.



Each of the 12 motors of the robot is small. The size is roughly equal to the size of the Mason jar lid. The motor design includes a stator, a set of coils that generate a rotating magnetic field; a small controller that sets the current generated by the stator; a rotor with magnets, rotating with the stator field, creating torque for lifting or rotating a limb; gearbox, which provides a reduction gear 6: 1; A position sensor that measures the angle and orientation of the motor and the associated robo-limb.



The movements of each limb are determined by the work of three servos, that is, at the “feet” there are three degrees of freedom. All this is easy, so that the robot can perform fast movements and perform almost any task of the operator.



For robots, algorithms are being developed that give devices the ability to navigate the terrain and move in one way or another through different types of terrain. The robot can climb and descend the stairs, run on the soil and stone, move around in a pile of fallen leaves (this moment is shown in the video).



Unfortunately, it is unclear what is the power reserve of the robot on a single battery charge.



In the future, the developers plan to improve both the design of the robot and its algorithms, for which “races” will be held with the participation of ten cheetahs at once. During the competition, it will be possible to determine the optimal algorithms and continue to work with them.