From fire-breathers to sprinters, climbers and gymnasts, we've seen more than our fair share of impressive quadruped robots. Now the fourth-generation Honey Badger has added underwater walkies to the list of robodog capabilities.
Poland's MAB Robotics was set up in 2019, after its founders emerged from a student research group and built their first robodog. The startup's Honey Badger quadruped has now gone through four iterations, and the latest has developed a taste for water.
As you can see in the video below, Honey Badger 4.0 – which was introduced earlier this year – can be seen padding along while immersed under the water at a swimming pool to demonstrate its versatility in extreme environments.
Of course, dedicated underwater drones and bots would probably navigate the shallows with more finesse, but the Honey Badger does have the advantage of subsequently emerging from the breakers and making its way up the beach to continue its mission on land.
The company's Jakub Bartoszek told us that "The process of designing Honey Badger 4.0 to meet the requirements for operation in water was very challenging, but we overcame the obstacles thanks to our approach: build, test/break, learn, and improve. The hardest part to seal was the robot's actuators, where it was crucial to make them both lightweight and robust. We developed several prototypes and tested them to identify their limits and expanded those limits with each version. Today we know how to build a robot which can operate underwater, but still have a few ideas how to improve the solution further to improve reliability."
We can also confirm that the latest Honey Badger is 60 cm (23.6 in) in length, stands up to 50 cm (19/6 in) high and weighs in at 12 kg (26.4 lb). In addition to ambling under shallow water, it's reckoned good for grass, concrete and gravel too.
It employs RGB and thermal cameras plus LiDAR to get around at up to 1 m/s (2.24 mph), and is equipped with a gas sensor. There's a 6-Ah Li-ion battery for up to 2 hours of cable-free operation, the robot euns on the ROS2 platform, is capable of hauling a payload of up to 2 kg, and can be controlled remotely through 5G or a fiber-optic cable.
"The robot uses power from a built-in battery, and all movement-related computations are performed by onboard computers," confirmed Bartoszek. "The cable was used only for communication with the robot's operator, as standard Wi-Fi doesn't work when the robot is submerged. We are working on autonomous operation to allow inspections of industrial infrastructure, but this is still a work in progress."
Previous versions rocking a jointed spine have been shipped off to universities for research purposes, and others have undertaken inspection duties at industrial sites in Poland as well as getting inside heating distribution tunnels and water/sewage canals in Poznań city.
"We're cooperating with companies that manage infrastructure, part of which is constantly submerged," said Bartoszek. "One of these is a company responsible for water and sewage management, where some parts of the network are best accessed by a system capable of traversing both land and underwater environments. The bottom of these areas is often covered in rocks and debris, making movement difficult. During our tests with partners, we've demonstrated that a quadrupedal robot is a great tool, and we're working toward commercializing the solution. Furthermore, we have started a cooperation with universities that use the robot in research related to locomotion in water. This helps us with testing and contributes to the development of the solution."
Source: MAB Robotics
