‘Blind’ robot defies obstacles

The upgraded Cheetah 3 can navigate without visual sensors

MIT’S 40-kilogram mechanical Cheetah 3 can gallop across rough terrain, avoid or leap over obstacles and even climb up stairs littered with debris – all without cameras or environmental sensors. It effectively feels its way through its environment using what the MIT engineers call ‘blind locomotion’, just like how you would navigate your way through a pitchblack room. The Cheetah 3 can recover its balance quickly, for example after being pushed, thanks to two new algorithms that control whether the robot should commit to a step and how much force each leg should apply.

In future, the Cheetah 3 design could be used to explore disaster zones and assist with search and rescue missions