A robot dog has learned to open doors with its leg

A robotic canine can use a leg to open doors, press buttons and decide up rucksacks whereas balancing on its different three legs.

4-legged robots like Spot, the star of Boston Dynamics’ viral videos, usually want an arm hooked up to their physique to open doorways or decide up objects, however this could add vital weight and make it tougher for the robotic to squeeze via slim areas.

Philip Arm at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and his colleagues used a machine-learning mannequin to show an off-the-shelf robotic canine to make use of certainly one of its legs to carry out duties whereas standing nonetheless or shifting with the opposite three legs.

“We can not do all the things with the legs that we may do with an arm – proper now, a hand is far more dexterous. However the level is admittedly to make this work for purposes the place you possibly have mass constraints, or we don’t wish to have that further complexity, like for house exploration the place each kilogram of such a robotic counts,” says Arm.

To coach the canine – an ANYmal robotic made by ANYbotics – Arm and his staff gave the machine-learning mannequin the target of discovering a particular level in house with one of many robotic’s legs. The mannequin then labored out by itself the right way to management the remaining three legs and steadiness the robotic whereas standing or strolling.

Arm and his staff may then management the robotic remotely to hold out actions like selecting up a backpack and placing it in a field, or amassing rocks. Whereas the robotic can presently solely do these duties whereas operated by an individual, Arm hopes that future enhancements will enable the canine to autonomously manipulate objects with its leg.