Robot Runs On 6 Legs But Never More Than 2 At A Time

Looking at this legged robot gives us the same feeling we had the first time we saw a two-wheeled balancer. At first glance it just shouldn’t work, but after a little thought it makes a lot of sense. The six-legged bot called OutRunner uses two sets of three legs to propel itself. The  footfalls are staggered to mimic how a biped runs, but mechanically it’s just spinning wheels to which the legs attach. If you have a smart enough algorithm it will not only remain upright but be steerable too.

This is a Kickstarter offering to let you can get your hands on an unassembled kit for $200. That version comes with a universal camera mount but no camera. This may not sound like a problem, but look closer and you may notice what we have: The thing is remote-controlled and can run up to 20 MPH, but there’s not footage of it running slowly. We’d wager the need to keep itself balanced equates to the need to run rather than walk. Since it’s going to get away from you very quickly you probably need a camera and a wearable display (or a chase car like in the video) to make the most out of the OutRunner. But hey, who’s complaining about that? Sounds like a ton of fun to us!

Why is it that this thing looks delightful but all of the Boston Dynamics running bots scare the crap out of us?

[Thanks John]

48 thoughts on “Robot Runs On 6 Legs But Never More Than 2 At A Time

  1. It’s definitely cool but can’t see to many uses for this except as a currier of small object in rescue attempts in long hallways where speed is an issue or self destruct attacks. Maybe some kind of racing league…

      1. That’s really not a fair comparison, quadcopters have much more versatility in terms of ability- notably, staying in place and moving slowly. They also can lift sizable weight, and y’know, there’s the whole flying bit.

        This however, is a cool, if unrefined, racing robot.

        1. Please keep in mind that racing itself has pushed vehicle development miles ahead over the past century, motorcycles, cars/trucks. Having the title as the fastest, new robotic teams looking for speed will now have this as a benchmark and it hopefully helps them to think different in terms of mobility.
          Why not the best of both worlds?
          I could envision is a bigger robot like this one with recessed extendible rotors inside the legs and some folding ability. It could give the robot the ability to fly like a quad copter, but still move speedily on the ground, if the air conditions were poor.
          Build it and people will find uses for it. Open your minds.
          Don’t close your minds because someone thinks something is useless.

    1. It’s never worth it Lindsay. They’re either trolling or ignorant. Notice how they never provide a link so we can go see what magnificent makers/hackers/creators they are. I suspect because they’re the type to always criticize, never do.

      The people who actually do things appreciate the efforts of others and it shows, even if they are giving constructive criticism.

      1. The robot can be improved, but you can’t improve something until it has already been created and tested; it’s a start, calm down. In addition, I think that is a good song. Not excellent, but certainly not bad.

      2. “So you think that money is the root of all evil? Have you ever asked what is the root of money?” – Francisco D’Anconia

        Couldn’t resist quoting, since I’m reading it for the hundredth time…

        @Hirudinea [Re: Internationale] Yep – great tune, pure evil words. It’s been a while since I’ve heard it so went back and looked at the lyrics again. Pretty frightening.

        @gaijo [Re: “Co ty mi dasz”] I hate to say it, but I actually kinda like that song ;-) I listen to a lot of Disco Polo (no, I don’t speak/understand Polish) mainly for the electronic sound and rhythm. But I know that most Polish people think it’s pretty awful!

  2. The leg configuration makes it not really able to run on anything other than flat surfaces.
    With a 200$ hobby rc car being able to reach 30mph easily, go over much rougher terrain, and have much better handling, it kindof seems like a moot point. You can also slap 200$ worth of motor, esc, and lithium battery into the thing and get it to 50mph.

    I guess this project is more for “its cool” and not for “its functional”.

  3. “Why is it that this thing looks delightful but all of the Boston Dynamics running bots scare the crap out of us?”

    It’s an artifact of the “Uncanny Valley” phenomenon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley). Humans and their predecessors evolved with quadrapeds, some of which were predators. Mechanical ones that move a bit oddly, and particularly with threatening speed (and whirring generators in their guts) are instinctively threatening, like a lot of the relentless monsters in videos. Not much different than a Transformers bit player.

  4. Um, why not just bolt two wheels on the thing instead of the legs? It would be equally fast, if not faster and much simpler and cheaper due to simpler control system …

    I don’t really see much advantage of this setup over a wheeled robot.

  5. The shock absorbing “legs” look cool, but lets call a spade a spade. That’s a 2 wheeled pendulum balanced robot. The only thing leaving off the circumference of the wheel off of the spokes did for them is make it so they couldn’t stop without falling over.

    1. I couldn’t agree more. What gets me is not that they call a wheeled robot legged, but that they have the audacity to claim “world’s first RC running robot”, and then again about their competition. It has wheels, very poorly performing wheels.

  6. While very cute and a bit interesting it’s a bit much to compare with “legged robots”, more like “robot with odd wheels”. Other than the terminology and a bit over the top descriptions of their work I think it looks like a nice toy. Not of much practical use, but neither are my rc hobby vehicles :).

    One on topic note, I didn’t see any examples of hand-starting or stopping in the video or presentation, did I miss it or are the only examples car-start and that sidways catapult-thing?

  7. The design’s not finished, manufacturing/production/delivery isn’t even a wet dream yet, and the team is untested.

    Yea, I’m sure they’ll make their $150K goal for a dorky rc vehicle (in no way does that “thing” fall under the robot category).

  8. Very vaguely reminds me of Bruce Sterling’s “Heavy Weather”. An ex-military vehicle with a conventional 4-“wheel” design, but the wheels are composed of a huge number of powered pistons, like a tactile table wrapped onto a tire. As a result it has “perfect” suspension and the pistons are powerful enough to make the whole vehicle go airborne.

    Of course, this robot doesn’t appear to have anything more than springs on each of the piston legs, so… nevermind ;-(

  9. So many haters! This is a really cool start to a running bipedal robot. All they need to do next is reduce it to having just 2 legs that reciprocate back and forth (the forward stroke being much faster than the backward one) and then speed it up.

  10. Interesting and I like it though it does seem less functional than wheels and I don’ know that it will “change the status quo” – that just seems like a slightly arrogant attitude . I would put little shoes on it.

  11. Humans invented the wheel….and it was good…….so good that it hasnt really needed to change since it was invented.

    quit screwing around with overly complicated bike spokes that you call “legs”, and just use a wheel…….

    your design isnt ‘innovative’ , and it doesnt solve any problems………you show your ignorance as an engineer by creating a convoluted solution to a problem that doesnt exist…….

    1. I could see these as wheels with extremely high traction. It would have been nice if they focused on some ability that wheels do not have. Like in the demos of the Rhex.

      For now it seems a bit like trying to circumvent the rules by calling it bipedal.

  12. I want to see some encoder wheels, and software that can make it balance at a standstill, I don’t see why it couldn’t be done, would probably be creepier then.

  13. I really wonder what the point of this robot is. I guess people that work in robotics aren’t so stupid that they spend months or years working on something which in the end turns out to be just a funny wheel like some people suggest.

    So instead of hating and flaming couldn’t we just wonder and then discuss this point?

    I’ll try to make a start:
    With the functionality the ‘robot’ has now these ‘legs’ really just imitate the functionality of simple wheels. But this functionality is extendible! If you make the individual legs more flexible and controlable you really could navigate fairly stable through very rough terrain, which would be impossible with normal wheels.

  14. This is exactly the same concept as our senior project! Cooool.

    Unfortunately the concept itself has some major problems. Mainly the legs could easily be replaced by compliant wheels and nothing is lost or gained. Contrary to what you might think, those legs can’t handle rough terrain. It can probably compensate for the ‘occasional’ bump in the road, but running over a continuous stretch of rough, ever-changing, terrain results in bumps, falls and/or stuck/broke legs.

    Neat looking remote controlled car though.

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