Roulade — the forward roll

Mjlab-Roulade-Flat-MicroDuck

Rolling forward over the head and landing back on the feet. X / square triggers it; hold to chain rolls.

Why it is a hard task

During the roll the robot loses support entirely — for a stretch no foot is on the ground and the attitude is determined purely by the angular momentum at takeoff.

That means the policy has to get the whole arc right at the moment it launches. There is no opportunity to correct mid-air. Land at the wrong angle and it is a fall, not a roll.

What it costs the hardware

This is one reason the spare motors in the dev pack earn their place: rolls and fall recoveries put real shock through the joints. Repeatedly training and testing unvalidated roll policies on hardware can burn out a servo.

It works on wheels too

The official notes say sit, kicks and the roulade all work in roller mode as well, matching the prototype.