World, meet Cubli: a device that can walk, jump, and balance itself on a corner

A team of researchers out of ETH Zurich’s Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control have created a unique robotic system unlike anything seen before. Referred to as “Cubli”, this cube-based-bot can walk, jump, and balance itself, all while resting on one of its corners. 

Rather than extrapolate an understanding of what Cubli brings to the table from various online resources, here’s how the team describes robot, in their own words:

“The Cubli is a 15 × 15 × 15 cm cube that can jump up and balance on its corner. Reaction wheels mounted on three faces of the cube rotate at high angular velocities and then brake suddenly, causing the Cubli to jump up. Once the Cubli has almost reached the corner stand up position, controlled motor torques are applied to make it balance on its corner. In addition to balancing, the motor torques can also be used to achieve a controlled fall such that the Cubli can be commanded to fall in any arbitrary direction. Combining these three abilities — jumping up, balancing, and controlled falling — the Cubli is able to 'walk'.”

Cubli is the result of the Institute’s work in exploring various design challenges, where basic principles in math and physics serve as the foundation for a variety of these devices. Research so far has ranged from aerial vehicles to combustion engines to robotic systems like Cubli.

Now, while the Cubli is interesting, the obvious question is — why? Why would a box that can walk, jump, and balance itself on a corner serve any purpose?

The team’s response: research. That is, they developed Cubli to explore how best to develop a 3D inverted pendulum with a relatively small footprint. They also wanted to create device that could jump from a sitting position, without any outside support, and the Cubli can do this by braking its reaction wheels when they’re rotating at high speeds.

Earlier this year, they group presented their paper, “The Cubli: A Reaction Wheel-based 3D Inverted Pendulum,” at the 2013 European Control Conference (ECC) in Zürich. Along with the paper, they created a fun video that shows the Cubli in action:

Learn more at idsc.ethz.ch