Marc Raibert

Well, it's the first thing that worked. So let's see, if we go back to the leg lab, we built a quadruped that could do many of the things that Big Dog did, but it had a hydraulic pump sitting in the room with hoses connected to the robot. Mm-hmm. It had a VAX computer in the next room. It needed its own room because it was this giant thing with air conditioning.

Well, it's the first thing that worked. So let's see, if we go back to the leg lab, we built a quadruped that could do many of the things that Big Dog did, but it had a hydraulic pump sitting in the room with hoses connected to the robot. Mm-hmm. It had a VAX computer in the next room. It needed its own room because it was this giant thing with air conditioning.

And it had this very complicated bus connected to the robot. And the robot itself just had the actuators. It had gyroscopes for sensing and some other sensors. But all the power and computing was off-board. Big Dog had all that stuff integrated on the platform. It had a gasoline engine for power, which was a very complicated thing to undertake.

And it had this very complicated bus connected to the robot. And the robot itself just had the actuators. It had gyroscopes for sensing and some other sensors. But all the power and computing was off-board. Big Dog had all that stuff integrated on the platform. It had a gasoline engine for power, which was a very complicated thing to undertake.

And it had this very complicated bus connected to the robot. And the robot itself just had the actuators. It had gyroscopes for sensing and some other sensors. But all the power and computing was off-board. Big Dog had all that stuff integrated on the platform. It had a gasoline engine for power, which was a very complicated thing to undertake.

It had to convert the rotation of the engine into hydraulic power, which is how we actuated

It had to convert the rotation of the engine into hydraulic power, which is how we actuated

It had to convert the rotation of the engine into hydraulic power, which is how we actuated

uh it so there was a lot of learning just on the uh you know building the physical robot and the system integration for that and then there was the controls uh of it so for big dog you brought it all together onto one platform right and then so you could you could take it out in the woods yeah and you did we did we spent a lot of time down at the uh marine corps base in quantico where there was a trail

uh it so there was a lot of learning just on the uh you know building the physical robot and the system integration for that and then there was the controls uh of it so for big dog you brought it all together onto one platform right and then so you could you could take it out in the woods yeah and you did we did we spent a lot of time down at the uh marine corps base in quantico where there was a trail

uh it so there was a lot of learning just on the uh you know building the physical robot and the system integration for that and then there was the controls uh of it so for big dog you brought it all together onto one platform right and then so you could you could take it out in the woods yeah and you did we did we spent a lot of time down at the uh marine corps base in quantico where there was a trail

called the guadalcanal trail and our uh milestone that darpa had specified was that we could go on this one particular trail that involved you know a lot of challenge and we spent a lot of time our team spent a lot of time down there those were fun days hiking with the robot what did you learn about like what it takes to balance a robot like that on a trail

called the guadalcanal trail and our uh milestone that darpa had specified was that we could go on this one particular trail that involved you know a lot of challenge and we spent a lot of time our team spent a lot of time down there those were fun days hiking with the robot what did you learn about like what it takes to balance a robot like that on a trail

called the guadalcanal trail and our uh milestone that darpa had specified was that we could go on this one particular trail that involved you know a lot of challenge and we spent a lot of time our team spent a lot of time down there those were fun days hiking with the robot what did you learn about like what it takes to balance a robot like that on a trail

Yeah. As challenging as the woods were, working inside of a home or in an office is really harder. Because when you're in the woods, you can actually take any path up the hill. All you have to do is avoid the obstacles. There's no such thing as damaging the woods, at least to first order. Whereas if you're in a house, you can't leave scuff marks. You can't bang into the walls.

Yeah. As challenging as the woods were, working inside of a home or in an office is really harder. Because when you're in the woods, you can actually take any path up the hill. All you have to do is avoid the obstacles. There's no such thing as damaging the woods, at least to first order. Whereas if you're in a house, you can't leave scuff marks. You can't bang into the walls.

Yeah. As challenging as the woods were, working inside of a home or in an office is really harder. Because when you're in the woods, you can actually take any path up the hill. All you have to do is avoid the obstacles. There's no such thing as damaging the woods, at least to first order. Whereas if you're in a house, you can't leave scuff marks. You can't bang into the walls.

The robots aren't very comfortable bumping into the walls, especially in the early days. So I think those were actually bigger challenges once we faced them. It was mostly getting the systems to work well enough together, the hardware systems to work, and the controls. In those days, we did have a human operator who did all the visual perception going up the Guadalcanal Trail.

The robots aren't very comfortable bumping into the walls, especially in the early days. So I think those were actually bigger challenges once we faced them. It was mostly getting the systems to work well enough together, the hardware systems to work, and the controls. In those days, we did have a human operator who did all the visual perception going up the Guadalcanal Trail.

The robots aren't very comfortable bumping into the walls, especially in the early days. So I think those were actually bigger challenges once we faced them. It was mostly getting the systems to work well enough together, the hardware systems to work, and the controls. In those days, we did have a human operator who did all the visual perception going up the Guadalcanal Trail.