Agility Robotics and Robust Legged Platforms for Real World

Almost a decade ago, Stephan Hawking, the famous theoretical physicist, said that there is a high chance that robots will take over mankind.

At that time this was something that was ignored by the masses due to a lack of exploration and no evident data in this field.

But now I think it’s time that we take Mr. Hawking’s prediction seriously.

Why? Well, the development in the field of robots has been marvelous in the past few years, we have seen some amazing robots from AI robot Sofia to the back-flipping mini cheetah.

Despite thousands of amazing features, one thing that is particularly lacking in these robots is dexterity and agility.

To understand this, we need to know what is robot dexterity, and after that, we will discuss Agility robotics, an Albany-based company that has dedicated itself to working day and night to improve robot agility.

Thanks to agility robotics, robots have evolved a lot.

The new robots being made are smarter, better, and quicker than the ones before, all thanks to the hard work of research scientists in agility robots.

What is Agility Robotics?

Agility or dexterity can be defined as a knack for performing a task skillfully and with precision.

Where does this definition sets with robots? Well, we all know robots can perform a task repeatedly a thousand times without getting tired.

If you ask an industrial robot in a factory to pick a product a million times, it will do that without budging but if by mistake the position of said product Is changed by even one mm, the root wouldn’t be able to pick it.

This happens due to a lack of dexterity or agility in robots. This is the main research point of many robot scientists nowadays.

They want to make robots with good dexterity.

What is Agility Robotics?

Agility robotics is an Albany-based company that started in late 2015.

Whose main focus is to produce smart agile human-like robots that can serve humans in all fields of life, starting from research to military and even courier and transport as well.

Their team consists of two co-founders from Carnegie Mellon grad school, an engineer, M. Jones along with business developer Steve.

Their main purpose is to make robots that can help humans in daily household activities and common tasks like grocery delivery etc.

That’s why their robots are better in mobility and agility than other robotic companies of their level.

Aims of Agility Robotics

They aim to produce efficient agile robots with better mobility and other qualities as well.

Their robots aren’t noisy instead they are quite quiet lacking any disturbing loud voices. They aim to have their robots in almost all fields including:

• In the Armed forces: robots, thanks to good mobility, can go to dangerous areas without any difficulty
• Rescue: Rescue missions can be carried out with the help of these amazing robots
• Transport and courier: These robots can be used to deliver goods from one place to another in record time thus saving time and resources both.
• Research: They have made their products available for research

Products of Agility Robots

Agility Robotics is famous for its efficient products with great design and features.

Their designs are loved and well-appreciated by researchers around the world because of the creativity and hard work that goes with them.

They have two types of designs for their robots:

1. Mechanical Design: With the help of springs and software they are creating robust, swift, and efficient mechanical designs that are inspired by animal morphology.
2. Control Design: Control design mimics the animal movement and gait while being completely graceful and error-free. This mimicking is the base of their agile products. These control designs are inspired by animal locomotion I.e. swift, fully mobile, and efficiently graceful gait.

Their two famous products are:

• Cassie
• Digit

Cassie

Cassie is a bipedal robot launched by Agility robotics designed to mimic human walking motion without any error.

Unlike most bipedal robot that lacks dexterity and keeps falling due to little obstructions, the movement of Cassie is quite graceful and fall free.

Cassie would be a very important part of search and rescue missions as it easily can go to dangerous places and also carry weight while doing so.

It is being considered by many courier services also. It’s also marketed to be used for carrying groceries for the elderly and for those who can’t walk properly.

Launch Date: Cassie was launched by Agility robotics in 2017.

Digit

It is like a human but is a robotic creation by Agility robotics made in an attempt to make fully human-like bipedal robots.

The Digit is the perfect robot that fulfills all the aims of agility robotics. It is ideal for courier service also.

It can open doors and it can transfer goods up to 40 pounds from one place to another without any problem.

In the making of the digit, the company focused on a robot that is economical and reliable, that is the reason that it doesn’t have fancy features but it is fully reliable and trustworthy at what it does.

We can say that the digit takes the Cassie to the next level, as it adds arms to the bipedal structure of the Cassie to make it more human-like, unlike Cassie which looked more ostrich-like.

Launch Date: Although digit is ready to use, the company hasn’t launched it yet for the use of customers. They are planning to launch it later this year.

Conclusion:

Robot agility was one of the big obstructions in the path of creating human-like robots, it’s 2019 and researchers have surpassed this obstruction to quite some extent.

The most prominent example is the robots by Agility robotics that are fully agile and well-organized. Another obstruction is artificial intelligence, which is also being worked upon.

If the development is continued at the same pace then that day won’t be far when fully human-like robots will walk the surface of Earth/ They might replace humans like Mr. Hawking predicted, who knows?