From Walking to Working: A Robot Dog and Human Safely Carrying Objects Together in the Real World

  • Project Year: 2025-26
  • Departments Represented: MEng
  • Industry/Track: Robotics, Aerospace, or Automotive Advancements

This project addresses critical labor shortages and safety risks in the construction and manufacturing industries by developing a framework for humans and quadruped robots to carry heavy objects together. Our system, known as HQ-PCoT, allows the robot to intuitively “feel” human intent and direction using only its built-in internal sensors, eliminating the need for expensive or fragile external hardware. By utilizing a hierarchical AI control architecture, the robot can dynamically coordinate its legs and arm to maintain stability while following a human partner’s lead. We successfully validated this approach through real-world deployment, demonstrating that a robot dog can safely co-transport a shared payload in a dynamic environment.

  • Advisor(s): Professor Negar Mehr
  • Team: Jason Abi Chebli [ME], Elijah Chan [ME], Hanxiao Zhang [ME]