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Podcast: Agility Robotics’ Jonathan Hurst on developing legged robots

By Steve Crowe | June 3, 2020

Welcome to Episode 1 of The Robot Report Podcast. Join Steve Crowe and Eugene Demaitre every Wednesday for discussions with leading roboticists, innovative robotics companies, and other key members of the robotics community.

This week, Eugene and Steve speak with Jonathan Hurst, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Agility Robotics, an Oregon-based startup developing bipedal robots. Agility launched its first robot, Cassie, in mid-2017 and is now on the third and commercialized version of its Digit humanoid robot.

We speak to Jonathan about how passive dynamics has steered the direction of Agility’s robots, the role of simulation and reinforcement learning, and the fourth version of Digit that is currently being developed. He also talks about the evolution of the company’s robots, technical challenges and business opportunities of legged robots, comparisons to Boston Dynamics, his favorite robots, and much more.

If you would like to be a guest, or have recommendations for guests, for an upcoming episode of The Robot Report Podcast, contact Steve or Eugene. For sponsorship opportunities of The Robot Report Podcast, contact Jami Brownlee.

About The Author

Steve Crowe

Steve Crowe is Editor of The Robot Report and co-chair of the Robotics Summit & Expo. He joined WTWH Media in January 2018 after spending four-plus years as Managing Editor of Robotics Trends Media. He can be reached at [email protected]

Comments

  1. Matthew Bellman says

    June 3, 2020 at 3:16 pm

    Great way to kick off this podcast!

    Reply
    • Steve Crowe says

      June 3, 2020 at 7:41 pm

      Matthew, thanks for the kind words. We have some great guests lined up, but we’re always open to suggestions about who our readers want to hear from. Let us know if you have anyone you’d like us to connect with.

      Reply
  2. Philip English (AKA RoboPhil) says

    June 4, 2020 at 4:28 am

    Great Podcast Guys!.. Real like it… Keep up the good work. 🙂

    Reply
    • Steve Crowe says

      June 4, 2020 at 9:23 am

      Phil, appreciate the kind words. Stay tuned next Wednesday for our conversation with Paolo Pirjanian, CEO & Founder of Embodied. The company is working on a new companion robot. Gene, Paolo and I had a great discussion about the challenges involved.

      Reply
      • Philip English says

        June 6, 2020 at 8:50 am

        Thanks Steve, I will keep an eye out for it. Sounds very interesting, I will have a look on the web as well. Looking forward to next Wednesday. 🙂

        Reply
  3. Penny Scully says

    June 4, 2020 at 8:45 am

    Awesome Podcast, been much needed in the industry, looking forward to the next 🙂

    Reply
    • Steve Crowe says

      June 4, 2020 at 9:20 am

      Penny, thanks for the kind words! Stay tuned next Wednesday for our conversation with Paolo Pirjanian, CEO & Founder of Embodied. The company is working on a new companion robot. Gene, Paolo and I had a great discussion about the challenges involved.

      Reply
  4. Jorgen Pedersen says

    July 6, 2020 at 5:40 pm

    Steve, Eugene, what a great way to kick things off. This is a very insightful, high-quality podcast. Looking forward to listening to future episodes!

    Reply
    • Eugene Demaitre says

      July 7, 2020 at 7:16 am

      Thanks, Jorgen!

      Reply

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