American and Swiss specialists have created the experimental bipedal and bipedal robot MOBIUS. This robot is capable of performing many tasks: walking, crawling, pulling itself up with its arms, and rolling over its head using special protective arches installed on its back. During testing, MOBIUS demonstrated the ability to roll down a children's slide. Details of the development are presented in a preprint on arXiv.org.
Although walking robots are excellent for traversing rough terrain, most existing models are limited to moving on flat surfaces and cannot climb vertical structures. Specialized climbing robots, in turn, often lag behind other walking robots in speed and maneuverability on the ground. Engineers from different countries are working on creating a single robot that combines several modes of movement, which could significantly improve capabilities in search and rescue operations, inspections, and territory exploration.
A group of developers led by Dennis Hong from the University of California, Los Angeles, designed the experimental robot MOBIUS (Multi-modal Operations Bipedal Intelligent Urban Scout), weighing about ten kilograms. It can move both on two legs and on all fours, supporting itself with its arms on the surface. Thanks to two arches attached to its back, it can roll over its head and also pull itself up with its arms to gain more height.
The robot is equipped with four limbs: two arms with six degrees of freedom and two legs, each having four degrees of freedom. The arms end in two-fingered grippers with spikes, and the legs have standard flat feet. These grippers allow the robot to grip various elements for vertical advancement.
Information about the surrounding environment and MOBIUS's own state comes from cameras and force and torque sensors. The robot's structure has mass asymmetry, as the arms are 55% heavier than the lower body, which creates difficulties in maintaining balance. An algorithm trained using reinforcement learning is used to control bipedal walking. The neural network policy analyzes data on the current position and body speed, joint positions, previous command, and desired speed, then calculates the necessary new joint positions.
The policy was trained in a simulator using the PPO method, first on a flat surface, and then with domain randomization on uneven terrain. The choice of movement mode is made by a separate high-level planner, which plans the route based on a marked map of the terrain and decides where it is best to walk, crawl, or roll.
Crawling on all fours proved to be the most economical and stable mode of movement: MOBIUS reaches a speed of up to 0.4 m/s, consuming about 65 joules per meter, compared to 104 joules during bipedal walking. Rolling over its head on the arches allows for short bursts of speed up to 0.7 m/s, but during the somersault, the robot does not control its trajectory.
During tests, MOBIUS successfully climbed the steps of a small children's slide ten out of ten times, using the grippers to hold onto the railings. Furthermore, the robot managed to hang on an aluminum bar nine times and pull itself up with its arms. The spikes on the fingers provided fixation in the grooves of the aluminum profile, allowing the robot to hang on one gripper, which supports a load of up to 124 Newtons, exceeding the machine's own weight. Nevertheless, the current version of the robot requires prior terrain mapping and demonstrates low speed when walking bipedally—only 0.1 m/s.
In the future, developers plan to train MOBIUS to autonomously reconfigure its route in real time using vision system data and ensure its autonomous operation in obstacle environments. They also plan to refine the design to reduce energy consumption and adapt the robot to real operating conditions.
In some scenarios, robots can climb walls even without special devices on their feet. An example of this capability is the quadruped robot KLEIYN, developed by Japanese engineers, which is capable of climbing between two vertical walls.
The Chinese startup PrimeBOT demonstrated the Qiyuan T1 robot at the WAIC 2026 exhibition in Shanghai. This model possesses the ability to independently change its configuration, transitioning from a quadrupedal state to a bipedal mode.
The design of the robotic dog is intended to traverse complex terrain, including stairs. When interaction with humans is necessary, the robot can transform into an android, assuming an upright posture. In this mode, the back becomes the chest, and the front limbs function as arms. Additionally, the camera block rotates by an angle of 45 degrees.
In android mode, the T1 uses wheels mounted on its hind legs to maintain balance. The robot is capable of transporting small loads and performing video operator functions, supporting voice control for filming and keeping the subject in frame.
The Qiyuan T1 is not the first development in this field. Previously, the Chinese robotics startup Limx Dynamics showcased its wheeled robotic dog, the W1, which could stand on its hind legs and move in that position. Furthermore, the company Swiss-Mile, whose engineers are affiliated with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, presented a wheeled version of the ANYmal robotic dog, which could balance on its rear wheels and move like a bipedal robot, although this remained only a research project.
Separate attention should be paid to the presentation of the full-scale U145 mockup by the Airbus consortium, which is an unmanned version of the popular H145 helicopter. Engineers modified it by removing the pilot cabin and installing an automatic control system based on artificial intelligence and a set of sensors.
Instead of a traditional cockpit, doors with a folding table are placed at the front to simplify the loading and unloading process. Access to the entire cargo compartment, which occupies the full useful volume of the fuselage, is provided through side and rear doors. Despite the aircraft's complete autonomy, a pilot will be present onboard during test flights as a backup. The first flight is scheduled for the end of 2026, with full launch expected in the beginning of the next decade. The presentation of this aircraft is planned for the ILA air show in Berlin, according to the company's press release.
