MIT's Super-Stealthy Robot Cheetah Can Run You Down
Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT
The key to the robotic cheetah's stealth and agility is how hard its mechanical feet hit the ground, MIT researchers say in their latest video. The researchers working on the project, funded by DARPA, have developed an algorithm that enables them to control how much force the animal's feet exert when they contact the ground, which any sprinter can tell you relates to how fast you go down the track. The higher the force, the faster your speed.
With better control of how hard the cheetah's feet hit the ground, researchers found that it could run and bound on rough terrain like grassy fields while maintain its speed and balance. Balance is also an important factor in clearing obstacles, which the robotic cheetah does without loosing a beat.MIT
Instead, it bounds across fields. When an animal bounds, it lifts its back two feet off the ground right as its front two feet simultaneously make contact. This way, the animal always has two feet on the ground. See how the robotic cheetah bounds in this gif:
Right now, robotic cheetah can reach speeds up to 10 mph with its quiet electric motor, and researchers anticipate that it could top out at 30 mph. That's faster than Usain Bolt's record sprint in 2009, he ran the 100 meter dash in 9.69 seconds, corresponding to a speed of 23 mph.
Check out the full video, uploaded by MIT to YouTube:
Check out more awesome animal robots at DARPA's Maximum Mobility and Manipulation Program (M3) and Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) Program sites.
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