VIDEO: Robot with prosthetic hips and feet walks/balances itself

12/03/2013 - 00:00

The machine named MARLO is the third-generation bipedal robot for Jessy Grizzle, a U-M professor of electrical engineering and computer science. While its predecessors were connected to lateral support booms and confined to the lab, MARLO can venture out into the sunlight.

Preparations for its stroll began just after dawn on a recent Saturday morning— early to beat the snow and the foot traffic. Researchers put on their winter coats, hats and gloves and guided MARLO through the exterior door of the lab it had been walking across inside for several weeks.