Goals and Motivation [07/02/2025]

I wanted to build a high-ceiling technical system that would allow me to mess around with a variety of expertises like controls, embedded systems, mechanical design, and autonomy. A wheeled quadroped was compelling to satisfy all of these requirements alongside being complex enough to be interesting to me.

My goals are intentionally open ended:

• Develop foundational expertise in low-level controls, sensor fusion, and hardware integration through hands-on development.
• Experiment with vision-language-action (VLA) models in a real-time, physically grounded context.
• Apply reinforcement learning (RL) to train locomotion and navigation policies, possibly enabling hybrid behaviors (e.g., rolling on flat ground, stepping over obstacles).
• Design and fabricate a mechanically sound and modular platform that can support rapid iteration.
• Ultimately, build an extensible research platform that I can use to test ideas at the intersection of robotics, learning, and embodied intelligence.