Army project develops agile scouting robots
May 28, 2019 , The Army Research Laboratory
In a research project for the U.S. Army, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley developed an agile robot, called Salto that looks like a Star Wars Imperial walker in miniature and may be able to aid in scouting and search-and-rescue operations.
Robots like this may one day be used to save lives of both warfighters and civilians, researchers said.
Topping out at less than a foot, Salto, which stands for saltatorial (leaping like a grasshopper) locomotion on terrain obstacles, now has a sophisticated control systems that allows it to master increasingly complex tasks, like bouncing in place, navigating an obstacle course or following a moving target, all controlled with a radio controller.
https://m.phys.org/news/2019-05-army-agile-scouting-robots.html