Actuation Approaches for Tomorrow's Versatile Legged Robots

Many legged robots today are specialized along a few dimensions of performance.  Some are agile and mechanically robust, others are energy efficient, still others are optimized for carrying large payloads.  None are able to accomplish all of these objectives simultaneously.  In this talk, we will discuss a new actuation technology, Viscoelastic Liquid Cooled Actuation (VLCA), that aims to satisfy this need.  In addition, we will present the latest results from the Human Centered Robotics Lab, directed by Prof. Luis Sentis at the University of Texas at Austin. These results include planning of dynamic legged locomotion and experimentation with Whole-Body Operational Space Control on human-scale legged robots.