MIT’s cheetah robot can now autonomously detect and jump over hurdles

Science Focus

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MIT's biomimetic robotics lab, which last year developed a free-running untethered cheetah robot capable of bounding along at 10mph, has now created a new version—Cheetah 2—that can autonomously jump over hurdles.

These aren't just token hurdles, either: the current version of the robot can clear obstacles that are up to 45 centimetres (18 inches) tall, while maintaining a steady speed of 5mph (8kph). 45 centimetres is about half the height of the robot.

While untethered jumping is already quite an achievement for a biomimetic robot, the way in which Cheetah 2 does it is even more impressive. There isn't a human pushing a "jump" button; Cheetah 2 is autonomous. Using on-board LIDAR, the robot can detect obstacles, estimate the distance to the object and how tall it is, and then adjust its stride so that it's perfectly placed to jump over.

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