Gill Pratt is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineeringand Computer Science. Hugh Herr is an Instructor of MIT/Harvard Division of Health Sciences and Technology and Harvard Medical School. People working in the Leg Laboratory are legged locomotion enthusiasts of all kinds. They represent several disciplines, including electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, physics, biomechanics, and aero/astro. Technology developed here has been used to develop everything from jointed robotic systems for industrial equipment, to fully locomotive robots. Marc Raibert founded the Leg Laboratory in 1980, and directed it through 1995. The Lab was originated at CMU when Marc was Associate Professor in Computer Science and the Robotics Institute. It then moved to MIT in 1986 when Marc became Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a member of the Artificial Intelligence Lab. He is now president of the company he co-founded, Boston Dynamics, Inc.

Uniroo (bottom left) robot is kinematically similar to a real kangaroo of mass 6.6 kg. The Uniroo consists of a body, a three-joint (hip, knee, ankle) articulated leg, and a single degree-of-freedom tail. Hydraulic actuators control each joint. A steel coil spring at the ankle stores elastic energy during stance.