Robotic locomotion in unstructured terrain demands an agile, adaptive, and energy-efficient architecture. To traverse such terrains, legged robots use rigid electromagnetic motors and sensorized drivetrains to adapt to the environment actively. These systems struggle to compete with animals that excel through their agile and effortless motion in natural environments. We propose a bio-inspired musculoskeletal leg architecture driven by antagonistic pairs of electrohydraulic artificial muscles. Our leg is mounted on a boom arm and can adaptively hop on varying terrain in an energy-efficient yet agile manner. It can also detect obstacles through capacitive self-sensing. The leg performs powerful and agile gait motions beyond 5 Hz and high jumps up to 40 % of the leg height. Our leg’s tunable stiffness and inherent adaptability allow it to hop over grass, sand, gravel, pebbles, and large rocks using only open-loop force control. The electrohydraulic leg features a low cost of transport (0.73), and while squatting, it consumes only a fraction of the energy (1.2 %) compared to its conventional electromagnetic counterpart. Its agile, adaptive, and energy-efficient properties would open a roadmap toward a new class of musculoskeletal robots for versatile locomotion and operation in unstructured natural environments.

非结构化地形中的机器人运动需要敏捷、自适应且节能的架构。为了穿越这些地形，腿式机器人使用刚性电磁电机和传感传动系统来主动适应环境。这些系统很难与在自然环境中凭借敏捷而轻松的运动而表现出色的动物竞争。我们提出了一种受生物启发的肌肉骨骼腿部架构，由一对对抗性电动液压人造肌肉驱动。我们的腿安装在吊臂上，可以以节能而敏捷的方式自适应地在不同的地形上跳跃。它还可以通过电容式自感应来检测障碍物。腿部执行超过 5 Hz 的有力而敏捷的步态运动，并跳高至腿部高度的 40%。我们的腿的可调刚度和固有的适应性使其能够仅使用开环力控制来跳过草地、沙子、砾石、卵石和大岩石。电动液压腿具有运输成本低（0.73）的特点，并且在蹲下时，与传统电磁腿相比，它仅消耗一小部分能量（1.2％）。其敏捷、自适应和节能的特性将为新型肌肉骨骼机器人开辟路线图，以便在非结构化自然环境中进行多功能运动和操作。