Google created the 'Barkour' challenge for robots with inspiration from their own pooches.
Actual dogs can complete the Barkour course in about 10 seconds, but robots need about double that.In simple terms, the Barkour agility course is nearly identical to many dog courses, albeit much more compact at 5-by-5 meters to allow for easy setup in labs. The current standard version includes four unique obstacles—a line of poles to weave between, an A-frame structure to climb up and down, a 0.5m broad jump, and finally, a step up onto an end table.
To make sure the Barkour setup was fair to robots mimicking dogs, the team first offered up the space to actual canines—in this case, a small group of “ ,” aka Google employees’ own four-legged friends. According to the team, small dogs managed to complete the course in around 10 seconds, while robots usually take about double that time.Scoring occurs between 0 and 1 for each obstacle, and is based on target times set for small dogs in novice agility competitions . In all, each quadrupedal robot must complete all five challenges, but is given penalties for failing, skipping stations, or maneuvering too slowly through the course.
“We believe that developing a benchmark for legged robotics is an important first step in quantifying progress toward animal-level agility,” explained the team, adding that, moving forward, the Barkour system potentially offers industry researchers an “easily customizable” benchmark.Andrew Paul is Popular Science's staff writer covering tech news. Previously, he was a regular contributor to The A.V.
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