Engineers develop robot that judges its surroundings and walks, runs, and jumps like an animal

KAIST HOUND demonstrates its ability to overcome various obstacles using the newly developed control technology. Credit: KAIST

An era in which robots decide "how to walk" on their own has arrived. A four-legged robot has been developed that, much like a person or an animal, autonomously chooses the appropriate gait strategy for its surroundings—changing its gait on stairs, leaping over gaps and keeping its balance on forest trails.

A research team led by Professor Hae-Won Park from the The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Department of Mechanical Engineering developed a core control technology for four-legged robots that lets a single controller select and switch in real time between walking, running, jumping and other locomotion skills, allowing the robot to move quickly and stably, even in real outdoor environments.

The research was published in Science Robotics.

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