Oregon State University has released a promotional video for Cassie the two-legged robot. The video shows how the team from Agility Robotics company (AR) was able to develop Cassie. Agility Robotics is a spin-off business started by the university’s college. AR Jonathan Hurst, the co-founder of the AR, said, “Robots with legs can go a lot of places that wheels cannot. This will be the key to deliveries that can be made 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, by a fleet of autonomous vans that pull up to your curb, and an onboard robot that delivers to your doorstep.”
Cassie robot can stand, walk, trot, steer, and take an excellent fall without breaking. It is a highly developed robot which is developed inside the college. To make Cassie so advanced the team started from scratch and developed much of the technology within the college. They even developed their lithium battery systems. Hurst said, “Our previous robot, ATRIAS, had motors that would work against each other, which was inefficient. With Cassie, we’ve fixed this problem and added steering, feet, and a sealed system, so it will work outdoors in the rain and snow as we continue with our controller testing.”
Cassie’s designer said that they were not deliberately taking design cues from nature. The final form of Cassie looks like the leg of a large agile animal. The robot was built in 16 months using a $1 million grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the US Department of Defense. The development is still in progress and Cassie is among the leading innovations of legged robots. Hurst further said, “The robotics revolution will bring with it enormous changes, perhaps sooner than many people realise. We hope for Agility Robotics to be a big part of that revolution. We want to change people’s lives for the better.”