Students at Oregon State University have developed a bipedal robot that uses machine learning to teach itself how to finish a 5K racecourse, the school announced. The robot named Cassie ran 5 km of gravel, sidewalk, and fields to finish a course on a single charge in 53 minutes.
The experiment showed the robot can make use of two human-like legs to keep a steady but varied pace across different terrains. It could pave the way for a future filled with automatons helping humans with several tasks, the school said.
“In the not very distant future, everyone will see and interact with robots in many places in their everyday lives, robots that work alongside us and improve our quality of life,” said robotics professor Jonathan Hurst, who led the project.
Using machine learning to teach itself
Before the successful experiment, scientists weren’t able to figure out legged locomotion, which makes the new robot’s run more historic because it’s the first bipedal bot to use ML and teach itself to run on outdoor terrain, the school notes.
“Running requires dynamic balancing – the ability to maintain balance while switching positions or otherwise being in motion – and Cassie has learned to make infinite subtle adjustments to stay upright while moving,” OSU explained in a news release. Hurst called the invention “incredibly exciting.”
“The Dynamic Robotics Laboratory students in the OSU College of Engineering combined expertise from biomechanics and existing robot control approaches with new machine learning tools,” the professor said. “This type of holistic approach will enable animal-like levels of performance.”
Could be used for security purposes
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency provided funding of $1 million for the research. While Hurst said bots like Cassie will come in handy for mundane tasks such as package delivery, DARPA’s aim is to fund the budding tech and use it for the military, meaning they’ll also be used for security purposes.
Robots will be seeing more adoption in the future. Recently, BeBot, an electric robot has been developed by marine manufacturer Poralu Marine. The robot cleans the beaches and was purchased by the marine cleanup company 4ocean.
