Robert Playter

But, you know, over the course of probably five years...

we were able to get that robot to really manage a remarkable level of rough terrain.

So, you know, we started out with just walking on the flat and then we started walking on rocks and then inclines and then mud and then slippery mud.

And by the end of that program, we were convinced that legged locomotion in a robot could actually work.

Because going into it, we didn't know that.

We had built quadrupeds at MIT, but they used a giant hydraulic pump in the lab.

They used a giant computer that was in the lab.

They were always tethered to the lab.

This was the first time something that was sort of self-contained walked around in the world and balanced.

And the purpose was to prove to ourself that the legged locomotion could really work.

And so Big Dog really cut that open for us.

And it was the beginning of what became a whole series of robots.

So once we showed to DARPA that you could make a legged robot that could work, there was a period at DARPA where robotics got really hot and there was lots of different programs.

And we were able to build other robots.

We built other quadrupeds to hand, like LS3, designed to carry heavy loads.

We built Cheetah, which was designed to explore what are the limits to how fast you can run.

We began to build sort of a portfolio of machines and software that let us build not just one robot, but a whole family of robots.

Yeah, and to discover those principles.

You know, you asked earlier about the art and science of a leg of locomotion.

We were able to develop principles of legged locomotion so that we knew how to build a small legged robot or a big one.