DARPA-Funded 'Cheetah' Breaks Speed Record For Legged Robots

Sparrowvsrevolution writes "Boston Dynamics, a Waltham, Massachusetts technology firm and DARPA contractor, announced Monday that it's broken the speed record for running, legged robots. Its new four-legged creation is Cheetah, a robot that can run at 18 miles an hour, far faster than the 13.1 miles per hour record set by MIT in 1989. The video it's released shows Cheetah running on a treadmill, but the company hopes to both increase the robot's speed and take it onto outdoor terrain in the near future. Boston Dynamics rose to fame with its four-legged cargo robot Big Dog which showed an uncanny ability to walk over terrain and recover its footing even when it slips or is kicked. The firm followed up with Petman, a two-legged prototype that applies the same technology to human-style walking."

All hail..

[lazycam]

Our fast moving robotic overlords! Kinda scary to think about the military applications...

The operating system..

[goombah99]

... is Cheetos

Actually Pretty Impresive

[douglas.barton]

If it can backpeddle at 18MPH, how fast can it go forward?

Re:For humanity? Nope...

[Squiddie]

I don't know man, I really can't think of a lot of things to do with a robot other than having it run after terrified people. Terminator ruined me.