MIT’s DribbleBots are basically four-legged, soccer-playing robots that can function on various terrains. The most recent video has a pair taking on MLS team New England Revolution where both fully utilize a set of sensors that let them perceive the environment and feel where they are.
The real ‘brain’ lies between the sensors and actuators, tasked with converting sensor data into actions, which it then applies through motors. When DribbleBot plays soccer, it uses cameras on its head and body for a new sensory modality of vision. Future upgrades include the ability for the controller to handle slopes or stairs and perceive the geometry of the terrain rather than just estimating its material contact properties.
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If you look around today, most robots are wheeled. But imagine that there’s a disaster scenario, flooding, or an earthquake, and we want robots to aid humans in the search-and-rescue process. We need the machines to go over terrains that aren’t flat, and wheeled robots can’t traverse those landscapes. The whole point of studying legged robots is to go terrains outside the reach of current robotic systems,” said Pulkit Agrawal, MIT professor, CSAIL principal investigator, and director of Improbable AI Lab.
