MOBIUS: A Multi-Modal Bipedal Robot that can Walk, Crawl, Climb, and Roll
This work provides a versatile bipedal platform for mobile loco-manipulation, expanding the interaction capabilities and traversability of such robots.
MOBIUS is a bipedal robot that can walk, crawl, climb, and roll using a hybrid control architecture and a high-level planner, demonstrating robust gait transitions and dynamic climbing in hardware experiments.
This paper presents the MOBIUS platform, a bipedal robot capable of walking, crawling, climbing, and rolling. MOBIUS features four limbs, two 6-DoF arms with two-finger grippers for manipulation and climbing, and two 4-DoF legs for locomotion--enabling smooth transitions across diverse terrains without reconfiguration. A hybrid control architecture combines reinforcement learning for locomotion and force control for compliant contact interactions during manipulation. A high-level MIQCP planner autonomously selects locomotion modes to balance stability and energy efficiency. Hardware experiments demonstrate robust gait transitions, dynamic climbing, and full-body load support via pinch grasp. Overall, MOBIUS demonstrates the importance of tight integration between morphology, high-level planning, and control to enable mobile loco-manipulation and grasping, substantially expanding its interaction capabilities, workspace, and traversability.