Google engineers used real dogs to develop an agility course for robots
A robot dog 'Barkour' course may provide a new industry standard for four-legged machines. Deposit Photos It feels like nearly every week or so, someone’s quadrupedal robot gains yet another impressive (occasionally terrifying) ability or trick. But as cool as a Boston Dynamics Spot bot’s new capability may be, it’s hard to reliably compare newly developed talents to others when there still aren’t any industry standard metrics. Knowing this, a team of research scientists at Google are aiming to streamline evaluations through their new system that’s as ingenious as it is obvious: robot obstacle courses akin to dog agility competitions. It’s time to stretch those robotic limbs and ready the next generation of four-legged machines for Barkour. [Related: This robot dog learned a new trick—balancing like a cat.] “[W]hile researchers have enabled robots to...