00:00Back in the 80s, long before modern robot dogs appeared, engineers at the Leningrad
00:05Laboratory of the VNII TransMash created a spider-like walking robot. It was equipped
00:10with a laser rangefinder, allowing it to navigate its surroundings on its own. The operator only
00:15had to manage two parameters, direction and speed, everything else, choosing the trajectory,
00:20bypassing obstacles, calculating stride, the robot performed autonomously or in semi-autonomous
00:25mode. The entire movement algorithm, synchronization of the body and legs, maintaining the center of
00:31gravity, selecting support points even on uneven terrain, was initially worked out on a computer.
00:36On the physical model, each leg was divided into a thigh, a shin and a foot with tactile sensors,
00:41which allowed the robot to make its way where wheeled vehicles were powerless.
00:45Although mass production never began, the project became an important milestone for Soviet robotics.
00:50The algorithms developed were later used in related fields.
