MIT’s Cheetah 3 robot can run up stairs without watching its steps

MIT's Cheetah 3 robot doesn't need to see to run up a set of stairs, a new video from MIT shows. Even without cameras to dodge obstacles by sight, the 90-pound robot is equipped with new algorithms that help it navigate its environment by touch.

We've seen robots climb stairs before, like Boston Dynamics' adorable SpotMini. But Spot uses cameras. And the team behind the Cheetah 3 want it to operate without seeing the path in front of it; relying too much on vision could slow it down, or make it stumble. "What if it steps on something that a camera can't see? What will it do?" Sangbae Kim, a mechanical engineering professor at MIT who designed the robot, says in a news release. "That's where blind locomotion can help. We don't want to...

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