Robots Learn to Catch Themselves During Dangerous Stair Falls

Robots learn to catch themselves during dangerous stair falls

Robots that navigate staircases still face a major safety problem as losing balance often causes them to tumble with increasing force, risking damage to themselves and their surroundings. A new study from researchers at the Robotics and Automation Research (ROAR) Laboratory at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) proposes a way to reduce that risk by helping robots actively mitigate falls rather than only trying to prevent th…

A stair-climbing robot that catches itself when it falls

SUTD researchers have developed a reinforcement-learning-based safety system that teaches a stair-traversing service robot to brace itself mid-fall, addressing one of the biggest barriers to deploying autonomous robots on staircases.