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Ostrich-Like Robot 'Cassie' Has a Future in Package Delivery

Oregon State University has spun off one of its first businesses, Agility Robotics, focused on legged robotic locomotion and enabling robots to go anywhere people can go. A leading application for this type of mobility is package delivery. The company currently offers a bipedal robot named 'Cassie' that can stand, steer, and fall without breaking. The leg configuration of Cassie looks much like an ostrich or other ground-running bird. A 3-degrees-of-freedom hip allows the robot to move its legs forward and backward, side to side, and also rotate them at the same time. "Quite simply, robots with legs can go a lot of places that wheels cannot. This will be the key to deliveries that can be made 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, by a fleet of autonomous vans that pull up to your curb, and an onboard robot that delivers to your doorstep," says Jonathan Hurst, associate professor of robotics at OSU.