Training a four-legged robot to carry a soccer ball is not an easy task. But MIT researchers have managed to build a robot that can move on flat ground, sand, grass, snow and mud with a ball. This robot can stand up again and continue moving even if it falls.
MIT researchers named a robot Dribblebot have developed which is able to carry the ball on different surfaces and can detect the resistance of the surfaces against the ball. Yangdong Ji, who was one of the managers of the project, says that in the past there have been attempts to make robots move the ball on flat surfaces, but this robot is different.
Dribblebot plays football better than previous examples
Dribblebot has gone through several trainings to find the ability to move in different environments. Scientists say that in this project, the robot took the ball and the ground to computer simulations and then applied various physical parameters to it. Then 4 thousand The version of the robot in the computer simultaneously experienced different conditions to learn 4 thousand times faster than normal.
Even while moving, this robot does not know in advance exactly how to move the ball forward and makes its decisions in the moment. In this system, the robot is told that if it is successful in each move, it will be rewarded, and if it makes a mistake, it will receive negative points. So Dribblebot basically decides on the fly how much force to apply to the ball.
This device can even move on unfamiliar surfaces and get up again if it falls. Scientists say that most robots today have wheels, but these robots cannot be used for tasks such as rescue operations. As a result, it is essential that robots can move on different surfaces and have algorithms for automatic movement on different terrains.
