How Tencent’s Ollie Wheel‑Legged Robot Achieves 360° Flips and High‑Speed Skating

Today we introduce a new member of the Tencent robot family: Ollie, a 35 cm tall wheel‑legged robot capable of skating, 360° flips, and high jumps.

Ollie can jump onto a 40 cm step and achieve a vertical leap of up to 60 cm, demonstrating remarkable agility for its size.

Designed as a wheel‑legged robot, Ollie uses a parallel mechanism with a five‑bar linkage, providing a simple structure, high dynamic performance, and strong explosive power.

The robot’s tail adds extra angular momentum for flips and serves as a third leg, enhancing stability and enabling the attachment of a manipulator arm for additional tasks.

Ollie is built on Tencent’s years of mobile control research, achieving breakthroughs in motion planning, balance, and stability. Its research was accepted at the prestigious ICRA2021 conference.

The robot employs a nonlinear control method that removes the limitation of linearizable model regions, allowing robust balance even under large tilts.

Whole‑body dynamics control lets Ollie compute optimal joint torques to adjust its posture during impacts, such as during flips or when encountering sudden forces.

Advanced trajectory planning enables Ollie to pre‑plan motion paths, maximizing joint motor performance to achieve target movements.

The Tencent Robotics X Lab, which developed Ollie, focuses on three core robot technologies: mobility, dexterous manipulation, and intelligent agents. Mobility is considered the most fundamental capability.

Future work will expand Ollie’s platform with additional perception and payload modules, enabling applications such as coffee delivery and other service tasks.