The scientists’ community has recently had the opportunity to watch MIT’s Cheetah robot jump over impressively high obstacles in what is said to be a groundbreaking robotics experiment. The mechanical cheetah was capable of performing many other operations, but scientists have recently widened its capabilities.
MIT scientists are deeply found of their new cheetah robot which is capable of performing just as many actions and operations as the real living creatures. Researches are now bragging about their most recent achievements. They are very proud that they have managed to program the robot to jump over impressively high obstacles.
The footage that the prestigious university provided clearly shows that the mobility of the mechanized cheetah was significantly improved since the last experiment. According to the video, the robot uses the sensors embedded in it eyes to scan the road ahead. The sensor determines then, whether there are any obstacles on the road or not.
As cheetah notices unidentified objects on the road, it immediately interprets the collected information to estimate the height and width of the obstacle. Once the information is decoded, the monkey adapts its body position to jump over the obstacle. Tests have shown that the robot can jump over 18-inch tall obstacles without facing any problems.
Although the robot has had very good results during tests, scientists believe many more upgrades may be performed to improve the functions of the mechanism. For instance, the bionic monkey was not programmed to distinguish between obstacles that may be jumped and those that can be dodged. This new feature may constitute the subject of further studies and experiments.
Even so, scientists are incredibly proud of their recent accomplishments. They have stated that running processes represent incredibly dynamic behaviors; therefore, the fact that the cheetah was able to carry out these activities without any errors is, for them a major achievement. They have explained that the robot has many more activities to perform when jumping. It is supposed to balance body weight and to handle safe landing once the obstacle has been surpassed.
MIT’s Cheetah robot will showcase its abilities during the DARPA Robotics Challenge which will take place in June. The details of the experiment will be enclosed in a special science paper in July.
Image Source: Bio Mimetics