RiSE Climbing Robot

Boston Dynamics with Stanford, CMU, UC Berkeley, Penn and Lewis & Clark (USA) · 2006

Not soldDARPA-funded research consortium robot.
Not for sale (research)Not programmableBoston DynamicsMicrospine feetTree & wall climbingDARPA
Not soldShipping: Not sold. A research robot that was never sold.
Remote control: Not possible. Research platform with no public interface.

Overview

RiSE (Robots in Scansorial Environments) was a DARPA Biodynotics project in which Boston Dynamics built a small legged robot that climbed walls, fences, trees and poles using feet covered in tiny hooks rather than adhesives. University partners studied claws, gecko-like adhesives and gait control, producing spin-offs such as Stickybot and SpinyBot. RiSE V1 and V2 were hexapods. The later V3 was a faster quadruped for outdoor poles. The project ran from roughly 2005 to 2009.

Specifications

CategoryCrawlers, snakes & climbers · Climbers & inspection crawlers
Released2006
AvailabilityNot for sale (research)
ProgrammabilityNo programmability
Best forProfessionals & labs
Vision sensorsNo vision sensors
ActuatorsUnknown
AudioNo audio
Compute typeUnknown
Remote controlNot programmable
Size~0.25 m long, ~2 kg
LocomotionSix legs (V1/V2, V3 was a quadruped) with microspine claws, plus a tail for balance on steep surfaces
ComputeNot published
CameraNone documented
SensorsNot published (leg and foot sensing studied in the project)
RuntimeNot published
Speed~5 cm/s climbing (Boston Dynamics), ~0.3 m/s on the ground (Make)
SDKNone public

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