Robotic ‘cheetah’ breaks speed records

US: The Pentagon's main research agency has created the fastest-ever land robot, named “Cheetah,” which can gallop at a speed of 18 miles (29 kilometers) per hour, scientists said Tuesday. The headless robot looks to be about the size of a small dog and is shown running on a treadmill in pictures and video released by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

“The robot's movements are patterned after those of fast-running animals in nature,” DARPA said in a statement.

“The robot increases its stride and running speed by flexing and unflexing its back on each step, much as an actual cheetah does.” Cheetah's dash has set a “new land speed record for legged robots,” beating the previous target of 13.1 miles (21.1 kilometers) per hour set by a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1989, the agency added.

Cheetah can move significantly faster than the average human's running pace, but it would not be able to keep up with Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter who has clocked nearly 28 miles (45 kilometers) per hour.

The robot was created by Boston Dynamics in Waltham, Massachusetts, and was funded as part of DARPA's Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program, which seeks to advance robotic technology.

Washington, Wednesday, AFP