Cheetah-bot races into your post-apocalyptic nightmares
The Biomimetic Robotics Lab at MIT is attempting to create things much like those being made by the more well-known Boston Dynamics, whose creepily realistic robots frequently light up the Internet with worries about machine takeovers.
[Read: PETMAN Ready for Armageddon: Hard to Tell if Man or Machine With New Robot Incarnation]
MIT’s effort is a bit more open, however, and its Web page shows a few of the technologies that makes the cheetah robot possible. A highly efficient leg motor, imitation tendons, and a responsive tail are among the improvements the team has made to allow the motion seen in the video above.
Other videos show the cheetah walking or trotting, but this is the first to show it seamlessly transitioning to a gallop, the rhythm and motion of which are totally different from other quadrupedal locomotion types.
Boston Dynamics’ cheetah is twice as fast, sure, but MIT’s runs on a battery and uses little in the way of shock absorbers and sensors to tell it whether it’s putting a foot down too hard.
Both big cats are made possible by funding from DARPA, the research arm of the Pentagon, which seems very interested this type of robot.
Read the full article at: nbcnews.com
Boston Dynamics Cheetah