A four-legged robot known as
the Cheetah lived up to its name on Monday, setting a new land speed record for
legged robots by running at 18 mph on a treadmill at a laboratory in
Massachusetts, its developer said.
The Cheetah, being developed
by Boston Dynamics with funding from the military's Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency, is part of a program aimed at achieving theoretical and
experimental advances in the science of robotics. The Cheetah broke a land
speed record for legged robots that was set in 1989 when a two-legged robot at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ran at a speed of just over 13 mph,
Boston Dynamics said in a statement.
Dr. Alfred Rizzi, chief robotics
scientist at Boston Dynamics, said the goal is ultimately to get the Cheetah
running much faster and in an outdoors environment.
"We designed the
treadmill to go over 50 mph but we plan to get off the treadmill and into the
field as soon as possible," Rizzi said in a statement. "We really
want to understand the limits of what is possible for fast-moving robots."
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