Agile Quadruped Robot Unveiled By Italian Roboticists

An anonymous reader writes "Italian roboticists have built a quadruped robot called HyQ that can walk, trot, jump, and rear. Unlike with another quadruped project, the famous BigDog from Boston Dynamics, the Italian team wants to make their design 'as open as possible,' so other research groups can use it to collaborate. HyQ is a hydraulic system with torque-controlled, compliant legs. It's currently tethered, but the researchers plan to make the robot self-contained with an on-board pump, add a head with cameras and laser-range finder, and take it for tests outdoors."

Comments

Re:It can walk, trot, jump, and rear.

[History's Coming To]

The interesting thing here is that rearing is a first step to biped movement. A machine that has quadruped stability and load carrying ability, but is able to switch to biped locomotion for a smaller footprint, a better view, or even use the front limbs for something else might be very handy.