'Cheetah' sets land speed record for legged robots

Summary: Created by Boston Dynamics and funded by DARPA, Cheetah is allegedly now the fastest legged robot on the planet.

By Chris Jablonski for Emerging Tech | March 5, 2012 -- 19:06 GMT (11:06 PST)

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Eighteen miles per hour may not win the 100 meter sprint at the Olympics, but it's pretty impressive for a legged robot that's bio-inspired by a cheetah.

The Cheetah Robot is being developed by Boston Dynamics, with funding from DARPA's Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program, which seeks to create and demonstrate significant scientific and engineering advances in robot mobility and manipulation capability.

The video below shows the robot galloping at speeds of up to 18 miles per hour (mph), setting a new land speed record for (four) legged robots. The previous record was 13.1 mph, set in 1989.

Via SmartPlanet

Topics: Security, Mobility, Wi-Fi

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2 comments

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Great, just what we need.

Now the killbots will catch you faster.

Scubajrr

6 March, 2012 05:23

Reply Vote

Actually...

If the typical adult runs a 100m dash somewhere between 15 and 20 seconds, that killbot will be able to run down it's human prey. This beast isn't much slower than the world record pace, though - 9.58 seconds, or just under 24 mph.

(I wouldn't be surprised if the record holder was clocked going 26-28 mph at one point in that run. Still, how long could he maintain that pace?)