Here\u2019s a fun challenge: teaching a quadrupedal robot to successfully dribble a soccer ball. It is, in essence, a core component of RoboCup, the big international competition founded all the way back in 1996. Soccer is a great way to put a robot\u2019s locomotion, agility and decision making to the test.<\/p>\n

Two key differences with MIT\u2019s Dribblebot: First, the RoboCup robots are generally bipeds. Second, and more importantly, this robot is designed to perform the complex task on uneven and changing terrain, adding yet another level of difficulty to the task.<\/p>\n

\u201cPast approaches simplify the dribbling problem, making a modeling assumption of flat, hard ground,\u201d project co-lead Yandong Ji said in a post tied to the news. \u201cThe motion is also designed to be more static; the robot isn\u2019t trying to run and manipulate the ball simultaneously. That\u2019s where more difficult dynamics enter the control problem. We tackled this by extending recent advances that have enabled better outdoor locomotion into this compound task which combines aspects of locomotion and dexterous manipulation together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Potential terrains include grass (naturally), sand, gravel, mud and snow. The answer to all of the above is one that should be familiar to anyone with passing familiarity with the robotics space of late: simulation, simulation, simulation. In training, the physical robot is regarded as a \u201cdigital twin,\u201d getting put through its paces as computers run 4,000 simultaneous simulations of different environments.<\/p>\n

This sort of training clearly has broader applications beyond the admittedly narrow world of robot soccer. The debate around the efficacy of legged robots rages on, but one thing is certain: There are limitations to how far you can currently go on wheels.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look around today, most robots are wheeled. But imagine that there\u2019s 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\u2019t flat, and wheeled robots can\u2019t traverse those landscapes,\u201d says MIT professor, Pulkit Agrawal. The whole point of studying legged robots is to go to terrains outside the reach of current robotic systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, Dribblebot has its own limitations, as well. Stairs and inclines still present a challenge for the little robot.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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