Tohoku University and others develop six-legged robot that learns stick insect walking with AI

An international research team including Tohoku University announced that it trained AI on the walking cycle of a stick insect, enabling a six-legged robot to learn to walk in one hour. The team said the robot can move over uneven terrain and adapt even after losing a leg.

For legged robots operating on uneven ground, such as at disaster sites or inspection locations, a challenge is whether they can quickly relearn how to walk when part of the machine is damaged. The announcement from Tohoku University and others describes the learning method and test conditions in detail, showing that a six-legged robot learned to walk in about one hour using short videos of a stick insect and adapted to moving over uneven terrain and to conditions in which it was missing a leg.