Robohub.org
 

Robust bipedal Cassie to transform robot mobility


by
24 February 2017



share this:

Cassie is an advanced legged mobility robot. Created by Oregon State University spin-off, Agility Robotics, Cassie’s engineering team has big plans for this robot to assist rescuers in disaster relief and go the extra mile when delivering packages right to our doors, potentially helping to revolutionise the retail market.

If bipedal robots are not especially efficient why do we keep trying to build them? Simply put, these types of robots are useful in navigating around in human-created environments. Just watching the, albeit, slightly hilarious, compilation video from the DARPA competition makes you realise that creating efficient mobility in robotics is incredibly difficult; indeed, it’s nowhere near good enough. Cassie’s design may change how we utilise mobility in robots in the future.

Jonathan Hurst, Associate Professor of Robotics and CTO at Agility Robotics, says that robots with legs are able to “go to a lot of places that wheels cannot.” In doing so, this “will be key to deliveries that can be made 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, by a fleet of autonomous vans that pull up to your curb and an onboard robot that delivers to your doorstep.”

Photo: Agility Robotics

What makes this robot different? To start, they added more motors giving it 3 degrees of freedom in the hip joints, allowing human-like movement. It can sit down, squat, and crouch. Powered ankles provide support for Cassie to stand in place and balance or walk on uneven ground. Although bipedal, the legs weren’t specifically designed to look like an animal (although it does look quite ostrich-like), the team simply wanted the robot to be robust, agile, and efficient. The particular issue of motors working against one another prompted some extensive theoretical research, to create the mathematical frameworks needed to solve the problem. In the video below, one of the co-founders pushes his body weight onto Cassie yet it still manages to keep its balance effortlessly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWVci9qS7Ds

Many of the components used in Cassie were custom made, including its lithium-ion battery pack. The robot can take a pretty good fall without breaking, and, its half the weight and much more capable than earlier robots developed at OSU.

“Our previous robot, ATRIAS, had motors that would work against either other, which was inefficient,” Hurst said. “With Cassie, we’ve fixed this problem and added steering, feet, and a sealed system, so it will work outdoors in the rain and snow as we continue with our controller testing.”

Agility Robotics already has several of its first customers and will license some technologies first developed at OSU. They plan to build on this scientific foundation in their product research and development. One leading application for this mobility technology is package delivery, as we mentioned earlier, but it could also be used in military applications like scouting into unknown spaces and search and rescue by enabling live, real-time sensing with human-like mobility.



tags: , ,


Kassie Perlongo Kassie is the Managing Editor at Robohub.
Kassie Perlongo Kassie is the Managing Editor at Robohub.





Related posts :



Robot Talk Episode 119 – Robotics for small manufacturers, with Will Kinghorn

  02 May 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Will Kinghorn from Made Smarter about how to increase adoption of new tech by small manufacturers.

Multi-agent path finding in continuous environments

  01 May 2025
How can a group of agents minimise their journey length whilst avoiding collisions?

Interview with Yuki Mitsufuji: Improving AI image generation

  29 Apr 2025
Find out about two pieces of research tackling different aspects of image generation.

Robot Talk Episode 118 – Soft robotics and electronic skin, with Miranda Lowther

  25 Apr 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Miranda Lowther from the University of Bristol about soft, sensitive electronic skin for prosthetic limbs.

Interview with Amina Mević: Machine learning applied to semiconductor manufacturing

  17 Apr 2025
Find out how Amina is using machine learning to develop an explainable multi-output virtual metrology system.

Robot Talk Episode 117 – Robots in orbit, with Jeremy Hadall

  11 Apr 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Jeremy Hadall from the Satellite Applications Catapult about robotic systems for in-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing.

Robot Talk Episode 116 – Evolved behaviour for robot teams, with Tanja Kaiser

  04 Apr 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Tanja Katharina Kaiser from the University of Technology Nuremberg about how applying evolutionary principles can help robot teams make better decisions.

AI can be a powerful tool for scientists. But it can also fuel research misconduct

  31 Mar 2025
While AI is allowing scientists to make technological breakthroughs, there’s also a darker side to the use of AI in science: scientific misconduct is on the rise.



 

Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence


 












©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence