Ability to jump and climb takes robots to the next level
PHILADELPHIA — A new robot at the University of Pennsylvania has a leg up on its predecessors now that researchers have outfitted it with jumping and climbing abilities — something that could make it particularly useful for such tricky propositions as military search missions or supply transport.
The RHex robot project began about 15 years ago, when researchers at several universities began asking what it would take for robots to traverse rugged terrain as well as animals do.
“You look at any machine that’s been built today, and almost any animal that you can imagine will outperform that machine,” said Penn engineering professor Daniel Koditschek, who has been involved in the development of RHex (pronounced Rex) since the beginning.
Legged robots, unlike wheeled ones, have the ability to overcome obstacles like stairs and ledges. But until the latest iteration of RHex, developed by Koditschek and fifth-year doctoral student Aaron Johnson, legged robots couldn’t negotiate gaps in terrain any better than robots with wheels.
“Quite frankly, what the leg robots were doing was going over terrain that a good wheeled robot could probably handle,” said University of Michigan engineering professor Jessy Grizzle.
Johnson has developed mechanisms that allow the robot to jump gaps and holes in terrain it previously would have fallen into. And where tall ledges would typically block such a robot’s path, RHex can manoeuvre onto platforms more than four times its own height.
Koditschek and Johnson designed the latest version of RHex — X-RHex Lite — using lightweight carbon fibre. This allows it to perform its leaping and climbing without consuming too much power.
The RHex project was originally funded by the U.S. Department of Defense division in charge of developing military technology. The latest version is funded by the U.S. army.