The four-legged bot is now faster than Usain Bolt
Posted 09.05.2012 at 4:25 pm
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WildCat Concept
Boston Dynamics
Last we heard from Boston Dynamics' Cheetah, it was coursing along at 18 miles per hour, the fastest a robot had ever run. Now, inspired perhaps by Olympic sprinters, it's cranked that up to a frightening 28.3 MPH.
Usain Bolt's peak speed during the 100-meter dash was 27.78 MPH. Now even our best humans falter before the inexorable scamper of the legged machines.
Cheetah, for now, is tethered to an external power supply, and runs on an indoor treadmill. Next year, however, Boston Dynamics plans to unleash Wildcat (pictured above), a Cheetah that's designed to run untethered.
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Well, now we're all screwed when robots try to take over.
This is pretty cool to see how powerful we're able to build new robots, can't wait to see how they'll improve upon this.
Call Bolt to challenge him--he can run 28 mph too.
Awesome. Think about what this can do for advances in prosthetics! Giving robotic replacements for aputees to allow them to run just as fast(and soon faster)as they would have with their real legs.
How long until they build AMEE?
Ha! No big deal. Why doesn't PoPSci display the robotic cat way ahead of him.;)
The day when they will launch one after a zebra, now that's a video I want to see..
A fascinating development in the field of robotics. Although, personally, I would hesitate to compare it to Usain Bolt until it can run untethered, find its own path to a destination, and adapt to terrain in a manner similar to the DOD's Big Dog.
@CosmicJoker42, the Bolt comparison works because we know what that speed looks like in a human context. Plus, I don't remember Bolt finding his own path to his destination OR adapting to terrain...
we are #%@$^ed when the robots become independent
Wow give it some fangs and vengeance and I can see the end of mankind