We all adapt our walking to the surfaces we are on without even thinking about it. Getting a robot to do it is a bit more challenging though. The PedestriANS is a bipedal robot that adapts its walking style to its environment. As the researchers Huthaifa Ahmad, Yoshihiro Nakata, Yutaka Nakamura, and Hiroshi Ishiguro explain:
By implementing an actuator network system (ANS), the robot is able to manipulate the physical characteristics of its legs and the way they interact with each other.
The above video shows this bipedal robot in action.
[HT]