This Blind Robot Can Walk...But How? 🤖

Dear Fellow Scholars, this is Two Minute Papers with Dr. Károly Zsolnai-Fehér. Today we are going to see how a robot doggy can help us explore dangerous areas without putting humans at risk. Well, not this one, mind you, because this is not performing too well.

Why is that? Well, this is a proprioceptive robot. This means that the robot is essentially blind. Yes. Really. It only senses its own internal state and that’s it. For instance, it knows about its orientation and twist of the base unit, a little joint information, like positions and velocities, and that’s about it. It is still remarkable that it can navigate at all. However, this often means that the robot has to feel out the terrain before being able to navigate on it. Why would we do that? Well, if we have difficult seeing conditions, for instance, dust, fog, smoke, a robot that does not rely on seeing is suddenly super useful. However, when we have good seeing conditions, as you see, we have to be able to do better than this. So, can we? Well, have a look at this new technique. Well, now we’re talking! This new robot is exteroceptive, which means that it has cameras, it can see, but it also has proprioceptive sensors too, these are the ones that tell the orientation and similar information. But, this new one fuses together proprioception and exteroception. What does that mean? The best of both worlds! Here you see how it sees the world. Thus, it does not need to feel out the terrain before the navigation, but, and here is the key. Now, hold on to your papers, because it can even navigate reasonably well even if its sensors get covered. Look. That is absolutely amazing. And, with the covers removed, we can give it another try, let’s see the difference…and, oh yeah! Back in the game baby! So far, great news! But, what are the limits of this machine? Can it climb stairs? Well, let’s have a look. Yup. Not a problem. Not only that, but it can even go on a long hike in Switzerland and reach the summit without any issues. And in general, it can navigate a variety of really difficult terrains. So, if it can do all that, now, let’s be really tough on it, and put it to the real test. This is the testing footage before the grand challenge. Flying colors. So, let’s see how it did in the grand challenge itself. Oh my. You see, here, it has to navigate an underground environment completely autonomously. This really is the ultimate test. No help is allowed, it has to figure out everything by itself. This test has uneven terrain with lots of rubble, difficult seeing conditions, dust, tunnels, caves, you name it. An absolute nightmare scenario. And, this is incredible. During this challenge, it explored more than a mile, and how many times has it fallen? Well, what do you think? Zero. Yes. Zero times. Wow. Absolutely amazing. While we look at how well it can navigate these super slippery and squishy terrains, let’s ask the key question: what is all this good for? Well, chiefly, for exploring under explored and dangerous areas. This means tons of useful applications, for instance, a variant of this could help save humans stuck under rubble, or perhaps even explore other planets without putting humans at risk. And more. And, what do you think? What would you use this for? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for watching and for your generous support, and I'll see you next time!