A team of Robotics Institute researchers in the School of Computer Science have designed a system that makes an off-the-shelf quadruped robot nimble enough to walk a narrow balance beam — a feat that is likely the first of its kind. By leveraging hardware often used to control satellites in space, the team offset existing constraints in the quadruped's design to improve its balancing capabilities. Their paper, "Enhanced Balance for Legged Robots Using Reaction Wheels," was accepted to the 2023 International Conference on Robotics and Automation.