Quadruped Robots Can Climb Ladders Now

When we look at quadruped robots, it’s impossible not to compare them to quadruped animals like dogs and cats. Over the last several years, such robots have begun to approach the capabilities of their biological counterparts under just a few very specific situations, like walking without falling over. Biology provides a gold standard that robots are striving to reach, and it’s going to take us a very long time to make quadrupeds that can do everything that animals can. The cool thing about robots, though, is that they don’t have to be constrained by biology, meaning that there’s always the potential for them to learn new behaviors that animals simply aren’t designed for. At IROS 2019 last week, we saw one such example, with a quadruped robot that’s able to climb vertical ladders.