How robots learn to hike

ETH Zurich researchers led by Marco Hutter developed a new control approach that enables a legged robot, called ANYmal, to move quickly and robustly over difficult terrain. Thanks to machine learning, the robot can combine its visual perception of the environment with its sense of touch for the first time. Steep sections on slippery ground, high steps, scree and forest trails full of roots: the path up the 1,098-meter-high Mount Etzel at the southern end of Lake Zurich is peppered with numerous obstacles. But ANYmal, the quadrupedal robot from the Robotic Systems Lab at ETH Zurich, overcomes the 120 vertical meters effortlessly in a 31-minute hike. That's 4 minutes faster than the estimated duration for human hikers--and with no falls or missteps.