Inspired by his daughter wanting him to build robot animals, Dr. Wei Wang, lead a group of PhD students to create a robot for automated dinosaur exhibits. Why a dinosaur? Dr. Wei Wang received a triceratops sculpture from a Chinese film director, who made a film on how such creatures may have moved, and also insisted that Dr. Wang make robot version of the animal. Two influential people is all it took.
The linux driven robot is connected, wirelessly, to a host system that ultimately sends the movement commands. The joints are motor actuated, it has on board acceleration sensors (even though it moves pretty slow), 3-axis gyro sensor, joint angle sensors, pan-tilt camera, and a passive compliant prismatic DOF on each toe. Named the FROG, Four-legged Robot for Optimal Gait, it was built at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Automation. The team plans on improving the speed and capabilities of the FROG.
Dr. Wang also admits that the FROG will never be able to compete against the BigDog, stating that the electric motors of his bot could not perform like the hydraulics of the other. That is ok to me. There is a Ferrari for one reason, and a Camry for another. Same for these bots.
Eavesdropper