Four-Legged Robot With Actuated Wheels to Navigate Challenging Terrain With Hybrid Locomotion Abilities

An international team of researchers with Cerberus, which includes ETH Zurich, The Autonomous Robots Lab, The Sierra Nevada Corporation, The HiPer Lab at UC Berkeley and Flyability, have been collaborating on ANYmal, a quadruped robot with actuated wheels on each of its four legs. This locomotive hybrid of walking and rolling allows the robot to tackle and navigate over a variety of challenging terrains over a longer range of distance.

Wheeled-legged robots have the potential for highly agile and versatile locomotion. The combination of legs and wheels might be a solution for any real-world application requiring rapid, and long-distance mobility skills on challenging terrain.

The researchers tested out the ANYmal under a number of different circumstances and validated its unique capabilities at the DARPA Subterranean (SubT) Challenge.

The robot performs hybrid locomotion with different gait sequences on flat and rough terrain. In addition, we validated the robotic platform at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Subterranean Challenge, where the robot rapidly maps, navigates, and explores dynamic underground environments.

via Technabob