On the 13th, the quadruped robot "Black Panther 2.0" developed by the Hangzhou International Science and Technology Innovation Center of Zhejiang University (hereinafter referred to as the Science and Technology Innovation Center), together with Mirror Technology Co., Ltd. and Hangzhou Kaierda Welding Robot Co., Ltd., was officially released. It is currently the fastest "quadruped robot" in the world, with a speed of 10 meters per second, comparable to Usain Bolt.
The men's track and field 100m world record is 9.58 seconds set by Usain Bolt in 2009. The newly developed "Black Panther 2.0" is only a little slower than Bolt, it resembles a "robot beast", with an overall weight of 38kg, a standing height of 0.63m, and a "battle armor" full of science and technology. The successful development of this "legged robot" can be said to be a major breakthrough in exploring the boundaries of robot performance.
Jin Yongbin, a researcher at the Humanoid Robot Innovation Research Institute of the Science and Technology Innovation Center, introduced that in the process of developing the Black Panther 2.0, the team took dynamics as the fulcrum, leveraged every inch of the robot's bone design, and learned the characteristics of natural animals such as black panthers and jerboas in the hip joint, knee joint, sole of foot and other motion configurations, and improved the strength, toughness, strength, limit, accuracy, density, and fluency of the black panther in the process of high-speed movement, realizing the coexistence of small body and large energy.
Behind the "fast" Black Panther 2.0 is the team's breakthrough research on robot dynamics. Jin Yongbin pointed out that in order to realize that the four legs of the panther are no longer "alone", "we make full use of the Huygens coupling pendulum principle, so that its four legs are coordinated into a unified gait, forming a joint force to achieve a high-speed sprint."
In order to further reduce the ground force at the moment of impact of the robot during high-speed running, the team used a spring mounted on the knee joint of the Panther 2.0 as a buffer, and in order to further break the curse that the panther will inevitably break when running at 6m/s, the team developed the "jerboa-like carbon fiber calf", which achieved a 135% increase in stiffness while only 16% increase in weight. "In the end, we imitated the sharp claws of the cheetah and customized a special 'running shoe' for the Black Panther 2.0, which improved its grip performance by 200%, so that the Black Panther can be as fast as lightning but as stable as Mount Tai with every step."
At present, the legged robot has come a long way. But there is still a big gap between speed and animals, why is there such a phenomenon?
Wang Hongtao, dean of the Humanoid Robot Innovation Research Institute of the Science and Technology Innovation Center, explained that in terms of control, animals have experience formed by long-term learning, and the footed robot must relearn every step. Therefore, it is necessary to use artificial intelligence methods to conduct deep learning from previous experience, and to make gait adjustments in a "conditioned reflex" manner when encountering specific situations.
"Through the combination of software and components, it only took us three months to form a prototype, which is already comparable to the most advanced quadruped robot in the world." According to Wang Hongtao, in the process of developing Black Panther 2.0, the team has achieved two disruptive breakthroughs in the forward design of robots and the development of motor drives with high power density, laying a solid foundation for the research and development of the next generation of industrial quadruped robots.