Ostrich-inspired two-legged robot Cassie runs a 5km

Cassie, the ostrich-inspired bipedal robot has crossed a new milestone by traversing a distance of 5 kilometres in an outdoor environment in under an hour, untethered and on a single battery charge.

According to its inventors, including robotics professor Jonathan Hurst from Oregon State University (OSU) in the US, Cassie is the first two-legged robot to use machine learning to control a running gait on outdoor terrain.

One of the biggest challenges in designing bipedal robots, the researchers explained, is because running requires dynamic balancing – the ability to maintain balance while switching positions or otherwise being in motion.