Lightweight, Agile NABiRoS Robot Walks Sideways
Traditional humanoid robots are complex machines whose practical uses are still limited due to their complexity, cost, slow speed, and lack of stability. The Non-Anthropomorphic Bipedal Robotic System (NABiRoS), created by a team at UCLA's Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory, modifies the traditional bipedal form by aligning the legs in the sagittal plane and adding compliance to the feet - reducing the total number of actuated degrees of freedom to four. The platform is comparable in height to a human, but weighs much less because of its lightweight architecture and novel leg configuration. NABiRoS can traverse shallow ramps and steps and even portray a certain level of emotion through the dynamic motions it performs.