WANDERER, a bipedal robot
Through a project supported by DoD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Sandia is developing technology to dramatically improve the endurance of legged robots, such as the Labs’ WANDERER and STEPPR robots seen here, helping them operate for long periods while performing the types of locomotion most relevant to disaster response scenarios. (Photo by Randy Montoya)
Sandia’s Robotics team exhibited its bipedal walking robot, WANDERER, at the Technology Exposition portion of the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals in Pomona, California. The team conducted a field test and demonstration. The Sandia-designed robot successfully operated for 5 hours and 20 minutes, including 4 hours and 9 minutes of active walking, traversing 2.8 km on a single battery charge. This level of performance exceeds that of previous walking robots by more than five times. Core components of the technology are readily transferable to other applications. (6500)