This Robot Dog Teaches Itself New Tricks

Now that’s a headline, right? It’s got a robot dog, plays off a well-known phrase and piques curiosity. Best of all: It’s also accurate! Sort of.

According to a paper today in Science Robotics, an international team of engineers created a way for legged robots — inspired by and physically similar to quadrupedal canines — to use machine learning techniques to learn better ways to move around and adapt to a given environment. As proof, you can watch one such robot “withstanding abuse from t