Object climbing by legged robots

A robot comprising:

• one or more sensors;
• a first pair of legs;
• a second pair of legs;
• data processing hardware in communication with the one or more sensors;
• and
• memory in communication with the data processing hardware, the memory storing instructions that when executed on the data processing hardware cause the data processing hardware to:
• receive sensor data of an environment of the robot from the one or more sensors, wherein the sensor data indicates an object in the environment;
• and
• instruct the robot to climb on the object based on the sensor data, wherein to instruct the robot to climb on the object, execution of the instructions on the data processing hardware causes the data processing hardware to:
• control the robot to extend the first pair of legs from a first position in contact with a ground surface to a second position such that a shank portion of each of the first pair of legs contacts the object or such that the first pair of legs is placed on an edge of the object;
• and
• control the robot to extend the second pair of legs from a third position in contact with the ground surface to a fourth position such that the second pair of legs is placed on the object.

A system comprising:

• data processing hardware;
• and
• memory in communication with the data processing hardware, the memory storing instructions that when executed on the data processing hardware cause the data processing hardware to:
• receive sensor data of an environment of a robot from one or more sensors of the robot, wherein the robot comprises a first pair of legs and a second pair of legs, and wherein the sensor data indicates an object in the environment;
• and
• instruct the robot to climb on the object based on the sensor data, wherein to instruct the robot to climb on the object, execution of the instructions on the data processing hardware causes the data processing hardware to:
• control the robot to extend the first pair of legs from a first position in contact with a ground surface to a second position that results in at least one of a shank portion of each of the first pair of legs contacting the object or the first pair of legs being placed on an edge of the object;
• and
• control the robot to extend the second pair of legs from a third position in contact with the ground surface to a fourth position that results in the second pair of legs being placed on the object.