Legged Robots

Boston Dynamics’ has added additional payloads and hardware upgrades to its quadruped Spot to help it operate in more areas. 

Attendees of the Robotics Summit & Expo will have the chance to test out Boston Dynamics’ quadruped robot Spot.

Difficult terrains are particularly challenging for robots, as they struggle to combine visual perception with proprioception.

The robot provides real-time sharing of photos of on-site situations and an activity log with the control center.

Project aims to take bipedal robots to a new level, equipping them to adapt on the fly to treacherous ground, dodge obstacles or decide whether a given area is safe for walking.

A senior robotics engineer at Boston Dynamics explains how perception and adaptability enable Atlas to perform varied, high-energy behaviors like parkour.

By training Atlas to maneuver through complex parkour courses, Boston Dynamics developed new movements inspired by human behaviors and pushed the humanoid to new limits.

The Puck is a compact LiDAR sensor that provides a 360-degree view with real-time 3D data and a 100 meter range.

Cassie completed the 5K at the Oregon State University campus in just over 53 minutes on a single battery charge.

Engineers use a few different techniques that employed both Spot’s Choreographer software and its API to make Spot dance.

The base policy and adaptation module are run asynchronously and at different frequencies, which allows RMA to operate robustly with only a small onboard computer.

U.S. Army findings suggest human-made legged platforms should be as efficient as wheeled and tracked platforms.

The robot uses a camera to see how rough the terrain is, and it uses sensors in the legs to feel how hard the walking surface is.

This quadruped developed at UCSD relies on a series of valves that open and close in a specific sequence to walk.

We’ve learned a lot over the last month about how Boston Dynamics’ robots became such talented dancers. We now know the RBR50 company employed human dancers, reflexive control, simulation and new Choreographer software, among many other techniques. But we’ve yet to hear from Marc Raibert, founder, former CEO, and now chairman of Boston Dynamics. Until…

Researchers are embracing chaos and nonlinear physics to create insectlike gaits for tiny robots — complete with a locomotion controller to provide a brain-machine interface. The group now describes using a system of three nonlinear differential equations as a building block for central pattern generators.

It’s official. Hyundai Motor Corp announced this morning it is acquiring a controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for about $880 million. Hyundai Motor will own 80% of Boston Dynamics, while a Softbank affiliate will retain the other 20%. The final numbers are a bit different than our initial reporting, but the deal values Boston Dynamics…

Update at 1 PM EST on Dec. 11, 2020: Hyundai Motor Group announced this morning it is acquiring 80% of Boston Dynamics for $880 million. Read Story. Hyundai Motor will acquire Boston Dynamics. The acquisition will be finalized at Hyundai’s December 10 board meeting. News about the deal was first reported by The Korea Economic Daily,…

ANYbotics, the Swiss developer of the ANYmal quadruped, closed a $22.3 million Series A round today. ANYmal is designed for a number of industrial applications, including inspection, and the funding will help ANYbotics scale the business. ANYmal C, the company’s third-generation quadruped, is able to perform tasks with a high degree of autonomy in dynamic…

Percepto, an Israel-based developer of drones for monitoring and analyzing industrial sites, raised $45 million in Series B funding and partnered with RBR50 company Boston Dynamics. The Series B funding, led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, brings Percepto’s total funding to date to $72.5 million. With the funding, Percepto is launching its Autonomous Inspection & Monitoring…

Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot, which went on sale for $74,500 in June, has found early success working in the construction industry. The RBR50 company recently announced a partnership with Trimble to expand Spot’s capabilities within the construction industry. As part of Boston Dynamics’ Early Adopter Program, Foster + Partners, a London-based architectural design and engineering…

Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot is expanding to its resume every day, and the quadruped can add nuclear power plant exploration and radiation monitoring to the list. Engineers from the University of Bristol recently tested Spot around the Exclusion Zone territory of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The Exclusion Zone covers approximately a 1,000-square-mile area in…