UCLA

For the past decades, humanoid robots have demonstrated increasingly impressive capabilities. However, the limitations of current generation of robots became painfully clear during the DARPA Robotics Challenge. They struggled with even basic locomotion under real-world conditions, a far cry from what was expected from the public. This study attempts to design a brand-new humanoid platform from ground up. Custom-designed proprioceptive actuators paired with liquid cooling are designed to maximize the torque density of the robot. The kinematics chain and structural parts of the robot are optimized for fast walking and running. Purpose-built sensors and electronics aim to provide robust feedback under impact load. Combined with new control architecture, the robot achieved untethered running as well as walking at over 2m/s. We demonstrated highly dynamic behaviors that are beyond the state-of-art and pushed locomotion capabilities one step closer to their human counterpart.