Cassie, bipedal robot, Dynamic Robotics Laboratory, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

Engineers at Oregon State University are creating the next generation of bipedal robots.

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Cassie gets a little excited while out for a walk.

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Time-lapse of all three launch customer robots dynamically balancing and demonstrating the "gaze" behavior that indicates power-on status.

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Michigan Robotics’ latest member arrived last week in a black plastic case about two feet to a side, buried beneath a layer of foam cubes and crouched on a metal calibration stand.
The latest model, dubbed Cassie Blue by the Michigan team, has control over two more joints in each leg – motors for hip rotation and at the ankle for extra stability. Not only do these give Cassie the potential to be better at the independent walking pioneered by its predecessor, MARLO, but it opens a host of new possibilities.
Jessy Grizzle, the director of Michigan Robotics and the Elmer G. Gilbert Distinguished University Professor of Engineering, is especially interested in mounting a camera on Cassie and incorporating fast image processing on its extra chip, enabling the robot to use video to identify large changes in terrain visually.
This, Grizzle says, will prepare Cassie for Michigan’s “robot torture track” – the art installation known as the Wave Field. The field of three-foot earthen mounds totally destroyed one of MARLO’s knees last summer when the robot stepped blindly from the top of one hillock into the ditch.
“You’ve seen kids running freely over the Wave Field?” Grizzle asked. “That’s what this robot should be able to do.”

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Two Cassies decide to take a walking tour of our office. No CG: 100% actual robots.

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Cassie Blue is walking with control laws developed at Michigan.

Cassie was built by Agility Robotics. The robot's purchase was enabled by funding from NSF Inspire Grant ECCS-1343720 and Toyota Research Institute (TRI).

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Don't miss the bloopers at the end!

Cassie Blue is walking with control laws developed at Michigan.

Cassie was built by Agility Robotics. The robot's purchase was enabled by funding from NSF Inspire Grant ECCS-1343720 and Toyota Research Institute (TRI). The work on the control law was funded by NSF Grant NRI-1525006.

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Cassie Blue is walking with control laws developed at Michigan.

Cassie was built by Agility Robotics. The robot's purchase was enabled by funding from NSF Inspire Grant ECCS-1343720 and Toyota Research Institute (TRI). The work on the control law was funded by NSF Grant NRI-1525006.

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Cassie Blue is walking with control laws developed at Michigan.

Cassie was built by Agility Robotics. The robot's purchase was enabled by funding from NSF Inspire Grant ECCS-1343720 and Toyota Research Institute (TRI). The work on the control law was funded by NSF Grant NRI-1525006.

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"Toward the Robots of Science Fiction, " by Aaron D. Ames, Bren Professor of Mechanical and Civil Engineering and Control and Dynamical Systems, Caltech

Science fiction has long promised a world of robotic possibilities: from humanoid robots in our everyday lives, to wearable robotic devices that restore and augment human capabilities, to swarms of autonomous robotic systems forming the backbone of the cities of the future, to robots enabling exploration of the cosmos.

Achieving the promise of science fiction will require imbuing machines with the dynamic locomotion behaviors that humans display with deceptive ease—navigating everything from daily environments to uneven and uncertain terrain with efficiency and robustness.

This talk will present the first steps toward achieving this goal on bipedal and humanoid robots with the result being dynamic and efficient locomotion displaying the hallmarks of natural human walking. The translation of these ideas to robotic assistive devices along with a wide range of safety-critical systems will be demonstrated with a view toward realizing the robots of science fiction.

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Cassie Blue is walking with control laws developed at Michigan in this publication: Da, X., Harib, O., Hartley, R., Griffin, B., & Grizzle, J. W. (2016). From 2D design of underactuated bipedal gaits to 3D implementation: Walking with speed tracking. IEEE Access, 4, 3469-3478.

Cassie was built by Agility Robotics. The robot's purchase was enabled by funding from NSF Inspire Grant ECCS-1343720 and Toyota Research Institute (TRI). The work on the control law was funded by NSF Grant NRI-1525006.

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Cassie had a meet-and-greet with a four-legged friend during one of our visits to Playground.

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Cassie Blue was built by Agility Robotics. The robot's purchase was enabled by funding from NSF Inspire Grant ECCS-1343720 and Toyota Research Institute (TRI). The robot has been operating Since October 2017 with control laws designed at Michigan and funded by NSF Grant NRI-1525006.

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The prescribed burn shown in the video took place on April 21, 2018 on the North Campus of the University of Michigan. The burns are done to promote the ecology of native species; you can learn more here "Controlled Burns"

Robots can be protected against flames and they do not suffer from smoke inhalation. While Cassie Blue has no arms to carry you out, coming generations of robots will be able to assist you.

Cassie Blue is walking with control laws developed at Michigan in this publication: Da, X., Harib, O., Hartley, R., Griffin, B., & Grizzle, J. W. (2016). From 2D design of underactuated bipedal gaits to 3D implementation: Walking with speed tracking. IEEE Access, 4, 3469-3478.

Cassie was built by Agility Robotics. The robot's purchase was enabled by funding from NSF Inspire Grant ECCS-1343720 and Toyota Research Institute (TRI). The work on the control law was funded by NSF Grant NRI-1525006.

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Cassie Blue is controlling the motion of the Segway by body lean, just as a human rider would do. To turn, she leans into the middle bar of the Segway with her "shin".

The feedback law being used is Cassie Blue's normal standing controller. Yukai Gong, via the remote controller, commands Cassie Blue's body lean. It would be much better if we modified the controller system so that we just sent desired speed and turn radius to the robot, and let feedback take care of the rest! Because we did not do that, we ran into a bit of trouble: the Segway has a built-in speed limiter. We'd be commanding Cassie Blue to go faster, faster, faster, by leaning further and further forward, and when the Segway would hit is speed limit, Cassie Blue would simply tip forward and fall of the Segway!

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Cassie Blue is operating with our normal flat-ground feedback controller. We made no changes to accommodate the sand. We were quite surprised that she could walk barefoot in such soft sand! Our best guess is that this ability is a fortunate outcome of the way we control her "feet". When a leg is in the air, we control the corresponding foot to be level with the ground. When a leg is in contact with the ground, we set the "ankle" torque to zero. In other words, we are treating the robot as being underactuated.

The Discovery Channel was filming on May 9, 2018.

Cassie Blue is walking with control laws developed at Michigan in this publication: Da, X., Harib, O., Hartley, R., Griffin, B., & Grizzle, J. W. (2016). From 2D design of underactuated bipedal gaits to 3D implementation: Walking with speed tracking. IEEE Access, 4, 3469-3478.

Cassie was built by Agility Robotics. The robot's purchase was enabled by funding from NSF Inspire Grant ECCS-1343720 and Toyota Research Institute (TRI). The work on the control law was funded by NSF Grant NRI-1525006.

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Cassie shows off some new abilities, and - bonus! - avoids crashing through the nearby window.

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Practicing inside is all well and good, but nothing beats a walk outdoors on a spring day.

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