SupraPed Humanoid Robot Uses Walking Sticks to Navigate Tough Terrain

Stanford University researchers revealed more information about its SupraPed humanoid robot, described as humanoid contact-supported locomotion that can be used for 3D unstructured environments.

SupraPed is being worked on by Shu-Yun Chung and Oussama Khatib, and can provide a great platform to provide additional stability for bipedal robots. In difficult terrain, wheeled and treaded robots can struggle to traverse the environment, and an upright humanoid with custom walking instruments will be better suited to move around.

A combination of the walking staffs with sensors, sophisticated planning software, and multi-contact control are able to provide real-time reaction to the environment – with the SupraPed platform controllable by human operators to issue high level commands.

Most robots designed to walk struggle to move around similar to humans, and instead with a certain level of uncertainty. Researchers are interested in improving stability and motion among humanoids, but it has been a difficult battle due to technological restraints.

There is great interest in developing robotic technology, which has a wide variety of uses in multiple industries, including consumer, business, manufacturing, and aerospace.

Thank you to IEEE Spectrum for providing us with this information

Image courtesy of IEEE