DLS lab in the news intro2

DLS lab in the news overview

Angelo PhD defense
27 FEB 2023: Graduation of Dr. Angelo Bratta

Congratulations to our fresh Dr. Angelo Bratta for an excellent defense of his thesis "Online Optimization-based Gait Adaptation of Quadruped Robot Locomotion"!

Congrats also to his supervisors Michele Focchi and Claudio Semini as well as PhD exchange host Ludovic Righetti.

The PhD thesis of Angelo's defense is going to be publicly available soon.

Stay tuned for more!

Fieragricaola TECH VINUM talk C Semini
02 FEB 2023: Presentation by Claudio Semini on project VINUM at Fieragricola TECH in Verona

Our PI Claudio Semini will give a presentation about our Agricultural Robotics Project VINUM at the Fieragricola TECH in Verona today, 2/FEB/2023 from 9:30am, at Sala Rossa.

He will present together with our collaborator Matteo Gatti from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.

MDPI Sensors Orientation Control System enhancing aerial maneuvers
01 FEB 2023: Orientation Control System: Enhancing Aerial Maneuvers for Quadruped Robots

We are happy to present our paper that has been accepted for Sensors MDPI.

In this work, we introduce novel ideas to control the orientation of a falling robot! It can have multiple applications also in other fields, like safety solutions for "falling from heights" which is nowadays one of the hot topics in terms of work hazards.

Title: Orientation Control System: Enhancing Aerial Maneuvers for Quadruped Robots.

Authors: Francesco Roscia, Andrea Cumerlotti, Andrea Del Prete, Claudio Semini and Michele Focchi.

The paper can be found at: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/3/1234

The video can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zad20mtFJm0

MDPI Optimization-based reference generator NMPC legged robots
16 JAN 2023: Optimization-Based Reference Generator for Nonlinear Model Predictive Control of Legged Robots

We are happy to announce that our paper has been accepted for the Special Issue "Legged Robots into the Real Environment" of Robotics MDPI.

In this work, we propose a novel optimization-based reference generator which exploits a linear inverted pendulum (LIP) model to compute reference trajectories for the center of mass while taking into account the possible underactuation of a gait. The obtained trajectories are used as references for the cost function of the nonlinear MPC.

Title: Optimization-Based Reference Generator for Nonlinear Model Predictive Control of Legged Robots.

Authors: Angelo Bratta, Michele Focchi, Niraj Rathod and Claudio Semini.

The paper can be found at: https://www.mdpi.com/2218-6581/12/1/6

The video can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp0D8_AKiIY

UNOESC Brazil Santa Catarina talk V Barasuol
07 DEC 2022: Talk by Victor Barasuol at UNOESC, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Victor Barasuol from our lab will give an invited talk in Portuguese at UNOESC, Santa Catarina, Brazil tomorrow 7/Dec evening. The title of his talk is “Quadruped Robots: from mechanical design to the use of artificial intelligence”. The talk is open to the public, so if you happen to be in São Miguel do Oeste, Brazil, do drop by. It starts at 19:30, local time.

IROS 2022 talk M Risiglione
26 OCT 2022: Talk of Mattia Risiglione at IROS 2022

Don’t miss tomorrow’s IROS 2022 talk of Mattia Risiglione in Kyoto, Japan.

A Whole-Body Controller Based on a Simplified Template for Rendering Impedances in Quadruped Manipulators by Mattia Risiglione, Victor Barasuol, Darwin G. Caldwell, Claudio Semini

Time: Wednesday 26/October/2022 at 10:30 JST

Place: Rm8 (Room F), Kyoto International Conference Center, Japan

https://iros2022.org/program/program-at-glance/

To download the full paper:

https://iit-dlslab.github.io/papers/risiglione22iros.pdf

Festival della scienza 2022
22/23 OCT 2022: Come play twister with HyQReal at Festival della Scienza

Do you want to play twister with our 140kg quadruped robot HyQReal? Come and visit us at the Festival della Scienza at Palazzo della Borsa on the 22nd and 23rd of October.

For more information about the Festival della Scienza: https://www.festivalscienza.it/site/home.html

More info about HyQReal: https://dls.iit.it/web/dynamic-legged-systems/hyqreal

IROS 2022 WBC
02 AUG 2022: A Whole-Body Controller Based on a Simplified Template for Rendering Impedances in Quadruped Manipulators

We are happy to announce that our paper "A Whole-Body Controller Based on a Simplified Template for Rendering Impedances in Quadruped Manipulators" has been accepted for presentation at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2022.

We present a whole-body controller for our quadruped manipulator that allows for the implementation of a Cartesian impedance control to coordinate tracking performance and desired compliance for the robot base and manipulator arm. The presented strategy decouples the arm and the base of the platform, enforcing the behavior of a linear double-mass spring damper system, and allows to independently tune their inertia, stiffness and damping properties.

Authors: Mattia Risiglione, Victor Barasuol, Darwin G. Caldwell and Claudio Semini

Preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.00810

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVBqBtA2BM0

ICRA 2022 6th workshop legged robots C Semini
27 MAY 2022: Claudio Semini presenting at the 6th Workshop on Legged Robots at ICRA 2022

Don't miss Claudio Semini's presentation at the 6th Workshop on Legged Robots at ICRA 2022! The presentation is tomorrow (Friday 27th May) at 9.05 Eastern Time (ET)/15.05 Central European Time (CET).

Live Stream: Zoom Webinar (https://zoom.us/j/6557821413...)

More info: https://leggedrobots.org/#about

DLS lab team
24 MAR 2022: Claudio Semini promoted to tenured Scientist

We're extremely happy and proud to share that Claudio Semini was recently promoted to Tenured Scientist at IIT.

"I’d like to thank all my team members in the Dynamic Legged Systems lab and all the DLS alumni for their tremendous contributions! I’d like to thanks also everyone else inside IIT that supported my team over the years, my mentors, the iit management, offices, directorates and assistants; as well as the international tenure-track evaluation committee for the extremely positive evaluation reports. A special thank-you also to the funding agencies and industrial collaborators (EU, INAIL, ESA, Moog etc.) and collaborating universities."

ICRA 2022 Foothold evaluation Criterion for Dynamic Transition Feasibility for Quadruped robots
18 MAR 2022: Foothold Evaluation Criterion for Dynamic Transition Feasibility for Quadruped Robots

We are happy to announce that our paper "Foothold Evaluation Criterion for Dynamic Transition Feasibility for Quadruped Robots" has been accepted for presentation at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2022.

We present a foothold evaluation criterion that considers the dynamic transition feasibility of a given foothold. We combine it with a Vision-Based Foothold Adaptation (VFA) that accounts for kinematic reachability, collisions, and terrain morphology and evaluate the feasibility of generated motion trajectories in simulation and experiments.

Authors: L. Clemente, O.Villarreal, A. Bratta, M. Focchi, V. Barasuol, G. Muscolo, and C. Semini.

Preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.04434

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rBopUquyrc&feature=youtu.be

HyQReal in MAD
JAN 2022: HyQReal and VINUM featured in Macchine Agricole Domani (MAD) magazine

HyQReal and the Vinum project are featured in a recent article in the agritech magazine MAD macchineagricoledomani. Yesterday we received the print copies!

Learn more about the VINUM project: https://vinum-robot.eu/

This project is in collaboration with Fei Chen (IIT), IIT-APRIL team, Matteo Gatti and Stefano Poni ( Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza)

robots into the wild
15 OCT 2021: Robots into the wild - Field testing of Hydraulic Quadruped Robots

If you are interested in our lab’s experience with field testing of our hydraulic quadruped robots, watch Claudio Semini's talk in live streaming today (15/OCT) at 11:10 CEST. See link below.

During this talk Claudio will not only go into more detail about the DLS lab in general, but also explain the challenges that we have faced during some outdoor demos. You will get to know more about the backstage struggles that we had during the filming of HyQReal pulling an airplane and learn about other big demos that we did and the preparation needed.

https://sites.google.com/view/robots-into-the-wild/home...

IEEE Access model predictive control with environment adaptiation for legged locomotion
OCT 2021: paper published in IEEE Access Journal

We are happy to announce that our article "Model Predictive Control with Environment Adaptation for Legged Locomotion" is published in IEEE Access journal.

In this work, we propose and test in experiments a real-time Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) tailored to a legged robot for achieving dynamic locomotion on a variety of terrains. We introduce a mobility-based criterion to define an NMPC cost that improves adaptation to the terrain features.

Title: Model Predictive Control with Environment Adaptation for Legged Locomotion

Authors: N. Rathod, A. Bratta, M. Focchi, M. Zanon, O. Villarreal, C. Semini, A. Bemporad

Early Access version: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9564053

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0-KIiw0eWM

I-RIM 2021 VINUM first test legged robot in vineyard
09 OCT 2021: First tests with a lgged robot in a vineyard presentation during I-RIM 2021

We tested our 140kg quadruped robot HyQReal walking in a vineyard on different soil types. Smaller higher-mobility vehicles like HyQReal will extend the existing fleet of agri machines towards the automation of agriculture.

Watch the 5min talk here if you can’t make it to Rome:

https://youtu.be/tQXGgjtvqFE

This research is part of the VINUM project, a collaboration between IIT-ADVR (team of Darwin Celdwell and Fei Chen), Univ. Cattolica Sacro Cuore (team of Matteo Gatti, Stefano Poni) and our lab (https://dls.iit.it)

AI4EU VINUM C Semini webinar
16 SEP 2021: Webinar for AI4EU webcafe series by Claudio Semini

Don't miss Claudio Semini's webinar as part of the AI4EU Webcafés series.

The talk titled "Project VINUM: Towards Automated Pruning of Grapevines" will be live on Thursday (tomorrow) 16/September/2021 at 15:00 CEST.

For more info: https://www.ai4europe.eu/.../ai4eu-cafe-project-vinum...

Our website: https://www.dls.iit.it

Project partner: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy.

CLAWAR 2021 C Semini keynote
01 SEP 2021: Keynote presentation by Claudio Semini at CLAWAR 2021

Claudio will give an interesting keynote presentation at CLAWAR 2021 in Takarazuka, Japan on "Quadruped Robots for Challenging Tasks on Unstructured Terrains.

Legged Robots are expected to assist and replace human operators in dangerous and dirty tasks in unstructured environments. As demonstrated by legged animals and humans, legs are ideal for moving over very rough terrain, where wheeled and tracked vehicles cannot go. To build versatile legged machines, it is crucial to combine high-performance hardware with intelligent locomotion control, planning and perception.

Reddit robotics showcase S Fahmi
01 AUG 2021: Reddit Robotics keynote presentation Shamel Fahmi

Shamel Fahmi will give a keynote presentation at the first Reddit Robotics Showcase (RRS)!

The talk titled "Legged Robots: Overview of the HyQ Robots, and How to Make them Terrain-Aware" will be broadcasted live on August 1st, 14:00 EDT (19:00 BST, 03:00 JST).

Stream Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ3_mMxmd7ZGrfVbgPPwrAg

RRS is meant to showcase the multitude of projects underway in the r/robotics reddit community ranging from hobbyists, professionals, academics, industrial, students, etc.

The showcase will be free and online, and will be held on July 31st and August 1st (10am to 5pm EDT).

http://www.redditrobotics.com/

Claudio Festival dello Spazio
08 JUL 2021 - 11 JUL 2021: DLS lab at the Festival dello Spazio

From 8th until 11th of July the DLS lab will be present at the Festival dello Spazio in Busalla at Villa Borzino. HyQ2Max is displayed at the festival with DLS lab members answering any questions visitors may have.

The stand is shared with the XOlab displaying their exoskeleton prototypes. Don't miss Claudio Semini's talk on Sunday 11th of July at 16:15 if you're at the festival.

We will share the link here in the news section in case his talk is filmed and streamed live or pusblished online afterwards.

HyQReal robot teleoperativo
01 JUN 2021: The new IIT’s “Robot Teleoperativo” on Robohub

The Robot Teleoperativo is a new robotics result achieved at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia and combining the rugged locomotion of HyQReal robot with dexterous and powerful manipulation assured by a new robotic arm, controlled by immersive VR visualization and haptic teleoperation. It represents a significant contribution to the state-of-the-art robotics dedicated to intervention on unstructured, difficult terrain environments, requiring powerful capabilities. The human operator can always be in control, not being replaced by the robot but substituted and assisted by it, in the case of situations where humans may be exposed to risks for their health, such as disaster response or emergency in nuclear, marine, chemical, oil-&-gas, environments.

HyQReal robot teleoperativo
31 MAY 2021: The New IIT's "Robot Teleoperativo" on Wevolver

The Robot Teleoperativo is a new robotics result achieved at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia and combining the rugged locomotion of HyQReal robot with dexterous and powerful manipulation assured by a new robotic arm, controlled by immersive VR visualization and haptic teleoperation.

HyQReal pulling an airplane
25 MAY 2021: HyQReal pulling an airplane as one of IIT's main results

IIT praised for excellent results, with specific mentioning of our quadruped robot HyQReal that pulled an airplane in 2019!

Yesterday, the Italian Court of Auditors (Corte dei Conti) has published their evaluation report about IIT's financial statement 2019 including a short description of the key research results. My group's HyQReal quadruped robot was mentioned as the second example in the list of main results!

mobility-enhanced real-time MPC
17 MAY 2021 Check out our latest pre-print on "Mobility-enhanced real-time MPC"

Authors: Niraj Rathod, Angelo Bratta, Michele Focchi, Mario Zanon, Octavio Villarreal, Claudio Semini, Alberto Bemporad

In this work, we propose a real-time Nonlinear Model Predictive Control tailored to legged robots for achieving dynamic locomotion on a wide variety of terrains.

We introduce a mobility-based criterion to define an NMPC cost that enhances the locomotion of quadruped robots while maximizing leg mobility and staying far from kinematic limits.

PhD defense Shamel Fahmi
24 APR 2021: Graduation of Dr. Shamel Fahmi

Congratulations to our fresh Dr. Shamel Fahmi for an excellent defense of his thesis "On Terrain-Aware Locomotion for Legged Robots"!

Congrats also to his supervisors Victor Barasuol, Michele Focchi, Andreea Radulescu, and Claudio Semini.

The PhD thesis and a recording of Shamel's defense is going to be publicly available soon.

Stay tuned for more!

Inauguration VINUM
05 MAR 2021: Inauguration of IIT-UniCattolica joint lab

Agricultural robotics: Today (Friday 5/March) in a live streaming from 16:30 - 17:30 Claudio Semini will talk about the joint lab IIT-UniCattolica on innovation in agriculture. The focus of today is on robotics for vineyard monitoring and management and we will inaugurate the new agricultural robotics joint lab facility in Piacenza. Towards the end of the event we will show our most recent results and live demo performed by the APRIL team of Fei Chen, which is part of IIT’s Advanced Robotics research line led by Darwin Caldwell. Language: Italian.

click the image on the left for the recording of the livestream

Claudio talk @ IFFR
04 FEB 2021: Quadruped Robotics on the Rise

For those who have missed the IFRR panel discussion about Quadruped Robots, the recording is now online and can be accessed by clicking this news item.

Panel speakers: Sangbae Kim (MIT), Claudio Semini (IIT), Ben Swilling (Boston Dynamics), Avik De (Ghost Robotics) and moderator Marco Hutter (ETH)

If you are specifically interested in Claudio's 4 short presentations go to minutes: 11:10, 34:15, 1:02:30, 1:23:15.

ESA announcement
DEC 2020: ANT project funded by ESA with DFKI and Airbus

The DLS lab is partnering up with DFKI (prime) and Airbus to work on the ANT project financed by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Autonomous Non-wheeled all-Terrain (ANT) rover will be a rover system tasked to explore difficult-to-access areas of the Moon and Mars such as high inclinations lopes, cliffs, craters, caves and lava tubes.

More details will follow soon.

DLS lab @ Maker Faire Rome and I-RIM
DEC 2020: Maker Faire Roma - The European Edition and I-RIM

The DLS lab is at Maker Faire - the European Edition and I-RIM! Come meet us virtually at our booth! We are going live Saturday 12th of December and Sunday 13th of December from 10:00 to 12:00 Italy time. See you there!

Claudio talk @ LICoF
26 NOV 2020: Innovative Robots for Unstructured Environments

Head of the DLS lab Claudio Semini will give a talk during "il Laboratorio dell'Immaginazione delle Costruzioni Future" (LICoF) in Italian. A recording of this talk can be seen by clicking on the image on the left

IROS 2020
OCT 2020: IROS 2020

IROS 2020 has started!

The DLS lab is present with 2 papers and a co-organized workshop.

Paper 1: Line Walking and Balancing for Legged Robots with Point Feet
Paper 2: Proprioceptive Sensor Fusion for Quadruped Robot State Estimation,
Workshop: IROS 2020 Workshop on Mechanisms and Design from Inception to Realization

If you click here you will go to the Publications section of our website with more information on the IROS papers.

HyQ leg at IIT headquarters entrance
11 SEP 2020: HyQ leg displayed at entrance of IIT headquarter

Being a part of IIT’s history, the very first HyQ leg prototype of 2008 is now prominently displayed at the entrance of IIT headquarters in Genova! Check out the leg working by clicking the image on the left.

Next to the leg there is also a copy of a beautiful 3D-printed integrated smart actuator ISA of our industrial partner Moog Inc.! This actuator is driving the knee joints of our third generation quadruped HyQReal.

extended feasible region
AUG 2020: Feasible Region: an Actuation-Aware Extension of the Support Region

Authors: Romeo Orsolino, Michele Focchi, Stephane Caron, Gennaro Raiola, Victor Barasuol, Darwin G. Caldwell and Claudio Semini

How do the motor limits affect the stability of legged robots?

We are excited to announce that our recent work on the Feasible Region is now published in the IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO) accessible by clicking here.

The Feasible Region is an extension of the classical support region that rules out all the configurations doomed to hit the robot's joint-torque limits. Using the Feasible Region we can plan movements for legged robots such as our quadruped HyQ on complex terrains and during load-intensive tasks! A simple yet efficient tool to plan feasible trajectories for locomotion.

The video that goes with the paper can be found on our YouTube channel and the Video section on this website.

visit of minister of economics to IIT
01 AUG 2020: Visit of Minister of Economic Development

Yesterday Italy’s Minister for Economic Development Stefano Patuanelli and senator Elena Botto were visiting the Dynamic Legged Systems lab and other groups of the Italian Institute of Technology. HyQ, HyQ2Max and HyQReal were right at the start of the lab tour!!

Michele Focchi @ Le Parole della Montagna 2020
17 JUL 2020: Le Parole della Montagna

Congratulations to our Michele Focchi for his talk at the event Le Parole della Montagna 2020 in Smerillo (Italy), together with our IIT colleague Alessandra Sciutti.

ICRA 2020 Claudio Semini
02 JUL 2020: ICRA 2020 workshop on Legged Robots

Check out the video of Claudio Semini's talk of earlier today as part of the ICRA 2020 workshop on Legged Robots! clicking the image will bring you to the YouTube video of it.

The video features previously unpublished footage of HyQ balancing and line walking, as well as HyQReal locomotion testing and rugged protections.

ICRA 2020
JUN 2020: ICRA 2020

ICRA 2020 has started!

The DLS lab is present with 4 papers and 2 workshop talks.
Check out our dedicated mini-site for ICRA 2020 by clicking the image

The site contains details on the presentations and talks for ICRA on topics such as locomotion adaptation over soft terrain, terrain-aware MPC and hardware feasibility of nonlinear trajectory optimization for simplified dynamical models.

Angelo Bratta live on FB @ IITalk
22 MAY 2020: Scienza in video - Angelo Bratta

For the Scienza in Video series that IIT is organizing in collaboration with ANSA Scienza&Tecnica Angelo Bratta gave a talk presenting the Dynamic Legged Systems Lab in a livestream on the @IITalk facebook page.

You can view the talk by clicking on the image on the left which will bring you to the IITalk facebook page.

dynamic walking 2020 Shamel Fahmi
14 MAY 2020: Dynamic Walking 2020

During the virtual edition of Dynamic Walking 2020 Shamel Fahmi will present our recent work on soft terrain locomotion. 

check out Shamel's website by clicking here to see his poster, the slides, etc.

DIBRIS UniGe
MAY 2020: Open PhD positions in the DLS lab

All PhD positions at IIT are performed under the double affiliation between IIT and the University of Genova (UniGE).

Every year, the Dynamic Legged Systems lab has open PhD positions in the PhD Program Bioengineering and Robotics (Curriculum: Advanced and Humanoid Robotics (Code 8174)) of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), a research institute that uses English as main language. All the positions are fully funded.

For 2020 there's three different PhD positions available at the DLS lab. One related to computer vision for legged robots, one related to optimization-based planning for legged robots and one related to machine learning for quadruped motion generation. The deadline for application is: JUNE 15TH, 2020 NOON, ITALY (CEST). Click "read more" to find out all about these open positions.

MPC
17 APR 2020: MPC-based Controller with Terrain Insight for Dynamic Legged Locomotion

Authors: Octavio Villarreal, Victor Barasuol, Patrick M. Wensing, Darwin G. Caldwell and Claudio Semini.

In this work we present a novel control strategy for dynamic legged locomotion in complex scenarios, that considers information about the morphology of the terrain in contexts when only on-board mapping and computation are available. The strategy is built on top of two main elements: first a contact sequence task that provides safe foothold locations based on a convolutional neural network to perform fast and continuous evaluation of the terrain in search of safe foothold locations; then a model predictive controller that considers the foothold locations given by the contact sequence task to optimize target ground reaction forces.

Octavio PhD defense
14 FEB 2020: Graduation of Dr. Octavio Villarreal Magaña

Congratulations to Octavio who defended his thesis on “Bridging Vision and Dynamic Legged Locomotion”! Congrats also to his main supervisor Victor Barasuol for a job very well done and also to our collaborator Patrick Wensing!

12 FEB 2020 - 14 FEB 2020: Visit DLS lab at A&T Torino

Salvatore Casella will represent the DLS lab at the Automation and Testing conference in Torino on 13th and 14th of February at Stand C01 C03. HyQ2Max is part of IIT's bigger stand that represents also Advanced Robotics.

HQR
MAY 2019: Moog and IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia Test New Quadruped Robot HyQReal by Pulling Three-Ton-Airplane

Researchers from Moog and IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia completed the design, assembly and testing of the new version of the hydraulic quadruped robot HyQ, called HyQReal. Its capabilities were demonstrated by pulling an airplane with a 3,300 kg (7,275 lb) weight for more than 10 meters (394 in). HyQReal is compact at 1.33 m (52 in) in length, standing 90 cm (35 in), and weighing 130 kg (287 lb), even with hydraulic infrastructure and batteries onboard. The robot has customized rubber feet for high traction on the ground and is protected by an aluminium roll cage and a skin made of Kevlar, glass fiber and plastic.

hyqreal plane + team
MAY 2019: HyQReal - The terrifying moment a robot dog pulls a 3-ton AIRPLANE with ease across more than 30 feet

A surprising new video shows off just how advanced the four-legged droids have become, as a 'HyQReal' robo-dog can be seen dragging an airplane that weighs a whopping 3 tons across the Genova Airport in Italy.

HyQReal was created by researchers at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) as a device designed to support humans in emergency situations.

HyQReal
MAY 2019: TechCrunch - You can do it, robot! Watch the beefy, 4-legged HyQReal pull a plane

It’s not really clear just yet exactly what all these powerful, agile quadrupedal robots people are working on are going to do, exactly, but even so, it never gets old watching them do their thing. The latest is an Italian model called HyQReal, which demonstrates its aspiration to winning strongman competitions, among other things, by pulling an airplane behind it.

HyQReal gif
MAY 2019: HyQReal - Four-legged robot pulls plane

Reuters was one of the first big media to pick up the new of the HyQReal robot release. The robot was publicly announced in a video at the airport of Genoa in which it shows of its strength by pulling a 3.3 ton weighing small passenger airplane. Click the "video" link below for the footage

FEB 2019: Le Iene - Robot: Alice, che cammina per la prima volta, e il cucciolo di umanoide

The Iene, the popular Italian TV show has covered a news item on IIT as well as part of a bigger coverage on robots. Matteo viviani, who hosts the show pays a visit to a number of IIT labs including the Dynamic Legged Systems lab where he has a short interview with MDr. Michele Focchi and gets a live demonstration of HyQ. To be seen from 10:31 onwards, note that the full video is in Italian

Futuro24
FEB 2019: frontiere della robotica

In a general news item about the frontier of robotics HyQ is featured amongst other IIT technologies. The full video is almost 15 minutes long, HyQ is featured at 04:11 including interviews of Dr. Victor Barasuol. Note that the full video is in Italian.

HyQ Vison Based Adaptation
OCT 2018: HyQ Steps Across Gaps Despite Getting Yanked Around

If your robotics lab has a quadruped, it’s become almost a requirement that you post a video of the robot not falling over when walking across some kind of particularly challenging surface.

At the Italian Institute of Technology, roboticists have used a convolutional neural network to reduce the time that it takes for the HyQ quadruped to plan its foot placement by several orders of magnitude, and it can now make dynamic adaptations, allowing it to withstand an extra helping of abuse from its human programmers.

clicking the image on the left will show the full video or click on this text to read the full article.

TGR Leonardo
JAN 2017: HyQ2Max on national TV - TGR Leonardo

Featuring an interview with Michele Focchi, HyQ2Max is shown on national televison. The robot can be seen demonstrating self-righting after a fall. This is a very important feature for robots in the real world as this means they are more autonmous and don't require human intervention after falling down or rolling over.

The item about HyQ2Max starts at 03:59 and can be seen by clicking on the image on the left.

Euronews
SEP 2016: Euronews on HyQ - the four-legged robot for disaster zones

After a visit from the associated press, HyQ and HyQ2Max were featured in Euronews among other media

As Italy is slowly recovering from a series of deadly earthquakes, researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology of Genoa are developing a new generation of robots to work in disaster zones. The key to the four-legged robot, called HyQ, an acronym for “Hydraulic Quadruped”, is its mobility. It can trot, walk on rocks, climb stairs, walk backwards and keep itself upright if it gets knocked down.

Reuters
DEC 2015: HyQCentaur - One-Armed HyQ Robot Can Knock Obstacles Out of Its Way

Quadruped robots could soon be an important tool for replacing humans in dangerous situations. The maneuverability of advanced four-legged robots means they can navigate uneven terrain and could aid rescue efforts and disaster recovery scenarios.

No matter how agile a legged robot is, however, their role has traditionally been limited to load carrying or observation tasks.

A team of robotics engineers from the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa have designed a robotic arm that they’ve attached to one of their flagship HyQ quadruped robots in order to give it manipulation capabilities.

This article was also published in the New York Times!

NOV 2015: Getting HyQ the robot 'disaster ready'

Robotics engineers are developing algorithms to make HyQ, a quadruped robot, into a useful tool in disaster missions.

Robotics engineers in Switzerland and Italy are developing algorithms that they hope will make a dog robot robust enough for use in search and rescue missions and environmental disasters that are too dangerous to employ humans.

The HyQ quadruped robot was developed and built by Claudio Semini, of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa, who completed it in 2010. A copy of the robot was built in 2012 for ETH Zurich Professor Jonas Buchli’s laboratory, part funded by the National Science Foundation. Buchli’s team is developing algorithms to increase the robot’s viability.

HyQ2Max IEEE Video Friday
MAY 2015: HyQ2Max featured in IEEE Video Friday

Before the actual release of the latest quadruped from DLS lab a teaser video was released. Headlining IEEE's Video Friday and captioned: Consider yourself teased. We’ve heard that HyQ2Max (this is the next generation of IIT’s HyQ quadruped) is going to make a full appearance within the next few weeks, and we’ll have a full article when it does.

Click the image on the left to go directly to the video!

servovalve with cylinder and coin to show size
JAN 2015: Hydraulic Quadruped Uses Mini Servovalves

HyQ, the hydraulically actuated quadruped, is a responsive, running, jumping robot designed by researchers at the Italian Institute for Technology. Hydraulic cylinders at the leg joints generate torque for movement and produce high load-bearing capability and impact resilience. A broad bandwidth for hydraulic actuation is provided by high-performance, compact E024-LA mini servo valves supplied by Moog Industrial Group.

IEEE spectrum
MAR 2014: HyQ Quadruped Robot Is Back With Even More Tricks

HyQ, a quadruped robot created by the Italian Institute of Technology, already knew how to walk, trot, and kick. Last year, it learned how to quickly react to avoid falls when stepping on an obstacle. Now HyQ is back with even more tricks.
Check out the article on the IEEE website by clicking on the image. The video displaying why HyQ is probably the most versatile robot in the world can be found in our video section on this website.

The gadget show
FEB 2014: The Gadget Show visits IIT

The gadget show of Channel 5 has paid a visit to IIT. Not only did they do an item on HyQ, they have also visited iCUB and Coman. Not interested in iCUB and Coman? Skip to 03:43 of the video to see HyQ in action.

hyq learns to avoid stumbles on IEEE
JUL 2013: HyQ Quadruped Robot Learns to Avoid Stumbles, Visits London

Last year, IEEE wrote about HyQ, a quadruped robot designed for rough terrain missions. Created by a team at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), HyQ was learning to walk and trot, and was also able to jump and even kick things. The robot uses hydraulic actuators, which allow it to move quickly and nimbly, with an eerie animal-like quality. Now HyQ has learned another important skill in life: how not to fall on its face when it stumbles on an obstacle.

hyq in russian news
JUL 2012: HyQ featured in Russian News: Steel Rescue Assistants

Russian reporters came to IIT in Genova to see with their own eyes how HyQ functions. In this video Darwin Caldwell and Claudio Semini talk about HyQ. Click the image on the left to watch the clip. Note that the video is in Russian.

hyq in IEEE blog may 2012
MAY 2012: HyQ featured in IEEE blog: Italian Quadruped Robot Goes for a Walk

Last week, researchers from the Italian Institute of Technology took their quadruped robot HyQ for a test run outside the lab for the first time. The researchers were anxious to try some new tricks HyQ has learned, including the ability to trot over obstacles without falling. The robot is still a strange headless creature, and though a sensor head is in the works, this quadruped might get even weirder with a new hardware addition: arms. Yes, arms.

hyq in IEEE blog oct 2011
OCT 2011: HyQ featured in IEEE blog: Quadruped Robot From Italy Can Trot, Kick

HyQs first appearance in IEEE. The article focuses on the first version of the hydraulically actuated robot, HyQ, capable of trotting and moving like a real animal. The article features a nice video of the robot and a single leg showing all sorts of versatile and dynamic motions. It's an interesting read, click the image on the left to visit this article on the IEEE website.

hyq in espr3ssioni
MAY 2011: HyQ featured in Espr3ssioni and Agoravox

As part of a bigger coverage on IIT triggered by research that incorrectly stated that the Italian Institute of Technology was a waste of money and did not produce enough papers, Advanced Robotics received a visit from a journalist of Espr3ssioni. HyQ received good coverage in the second part of their coverage.