Watch: This robot with its futuristic abilities could replace warehouse staff

What is evoBOT?

For starters, evoBOT has two legs that are essentially powered wheels at the bottom. It also has arms that have inward-facing disc-shaped grip pads at the ends. The robot can lean forward and roll at speeds of up to 10 meters per second.

The evoBOT is a special robot that can balance itself without needing extra weights. It’s compact and light. Unlike other robots, evoBOT can stay balanced all the time, allowing it to move on uneven grounds, including hills.

Evobot is able to autonomously navigate through various spaces owing to the presence of dual optical cameras. It effortlessly avoids obstacles and makes its way up ramps, small ledges, and through uneven terrains. The robot can shorten itself by extending to a horizontal orientation where its wheels go at the back, while the wheels on the undersides of its extended arms come at the front.

“The evoBOT is characterised by its high agility and flexibility. As a modular system, the application areas of this collaborative robot even extend beyond the classic logistics context into the complex urban space,” read a post on the company’s official website.

At present, machines can only perform basic tasks like moving around objects. However, the evoBOT is different. In the future, it will do more like handing over things and turning them around. Its bio-inspired design makes it comfortable to use, according to the company. All these features make it a friendly personal assistant for humans.

Fraunhofer IML is a research services company based in Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany. The company currently has 334 scientists and 250 doctoral candidates working for it.