ANYbotics ANYMal (robot)

2024: Presentation of a robot capable of climbing on attached stairs

In early October 2024, engineers from the ETH Zurich Robotic Systems Laboratory presented ANYMal, the world's first four-legged robot capable of climbing ladders. Now he can carry out a number of new tasks, including inspection and rescue operations.

The team developed special hook-like legs and used reinforcement training and simulations to teach ANYMal how to climb stairs. After training, the robot was tested in real conditions, and it managed to overcome obstacles in 90% of cases, proving the effectiveness of the hook-like paw design.

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interestingengineering.com

The inability to climb stairs previously extremely prevented robots from exploring new zones, endangered people and reduced the performance of robotics at industrial facilities. Engineers concluded that they needed to redesign the robot's "paws" to mimic human hands, and created a special hook-mechanism paw that allows the robot to firmly grip the rungs of the ladder. To improve flexibility, the engineers led the robots through extensive simulation tests with complex terrain and randomly generated surroundings. This approach allowed robots to develop highly efficient lifting skills faster and more efficiently.

The robot successfully climbs the stairs 90 percent of the time with an elevation angle of 70 ° to 90 °. The robot's lifting speed is 232 times faster than other modern models, the researchers say.

In the future, they plan to use new sensors, such as depth cameras, to check how four-legged robots can not only climb, but also go down stairs. The team claim they can improve the hook design to improve robot performance in a variety of activities.^[1]

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