Humanoid robots have potential to use human-scale furniture, ladders, vehicles, etc. However, they still cannot negotiate disaster-like terrains. The idea of SupraPeds is to increase locomotion stability by incorporating a pair of actuated smart staffs with vision and force sensing that transforms biped humanoids into multi-legged robots.

Credit: Oussama Khatib, Stanford University; Shuyun Chung, Stanford University

A diagram showing some of the technologies incorporated into SupraPeds' actuated smart staffs.

Credit: Oussama Khatib, Stanford University; Shuyun Chung, Stanford University

To deploy humanoid robots in cluttered and unstructured environments such as disaster sites, it is necessary to develop advanced techniques in both locomotion and control. Researchers from Stanford University proposed to incorporate a pair of actuated smart staffs with vision and force sensing that transforms biped humanoids into tripeds or quadrupeds or more generally, SupraPeds. The concept of SuprePeds not only improves the stability of humanoid robots while traversing rough terrain but also retains the manipulation capabilities.

Credit: Oussama Khatib, Stanford University; Shuyun Chung, Stanford University