Bipedal Robot Uses Jet-Powered Feet to Step Over Large Gaps

As you may have noticed, bipedal robots have a tendency to fall over. This often happens when the robots are trying to take a step, because stepping involves balancing on one foot while moving. All steps aren't equal, of course--you've got easy steps, when you're walking slowly across a flat surface, and you've got hard steps, when you're trying to avoid an obstacle by stepping over it or across it. Both robots and humans are constrained in the kinds of steps we're able to take by (among other things) how far we can stick a leg out without falling over. Humans mitigate this to some extent by dynamic walking, also known as constantly falling forward, but for less dynamic (quasi-static) robots, step length puts a significant limitation on the kinds of obstacles they can deal with.