The fastest any human has ever run on record was Usain Bolt. He was clocked at a ridiculously quick 27.79 mph (44.72 km/h) when he ran a 9.58-second 100-meter dash. Two-legged robots can run even faster, and it looks really weird.
What sent me down this rabbit hole was stumbling on a 10-year-old video of a robot designed after a Velociraptor dinosaur by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Basically the Korean version of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).The aptly named KAIST Raptor robot weighs 6.6 lb (3 kg) and sprints at an insane 28.5 mph (46 km/h). It has a "tail" to aid its balance while it runs at full tilt, even while obstacles are thrown in its path. Sadly, its "tail" looks nothing like a 'raptor tail. It's actually just a pole mounted to the side that works as a counterweight to keep it upright.
Given the tether, we can't quite tell if it's self-balancing as the researchers claim, so it almost feels like a bit of a cheat on the top speed. Could it run that quickly and stay upright without the crane-like tether?
The only robot to have run nearly as fast as the Raptor is Boston Dynamics' Cheetah at 28.3 mph (45.5 km/h) ... but the Cheetah is a 4-legged sprinter – also tethered – so "it doesn't count" in this article. But it's still kind of cool. For reference, an actual cheetah can run up to 70 mph (113 km/h). More of this article (New Atlas) - link - more like this (robots) - link
No comments:
Post a Comment