'Blind' robot learns to navigate a flight of stairs for the first time by feeling its way

Engineers in the US have devised a robot that can easily climb staircases in the dark. The bipedal robot was trained to use'proprioception,' or body awareness--to navigate uneven surfaces. Researchers say that's important if fog, dim lighting, or other factors limit a robot's visual acumen. 'Cassie,' a bipedal robot, ascended and descended he steps at Oregon State University without computer vision or other sensors Cassie was developed by the Dynamic Robotics Lab at Oregon State University in 2017. It has no'head' but its hips have three degrees of freedom, allowing it to move its legs forward and backward, side-to-side, and also rotate them at the same time,' according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.