World’s Fastest Robot? DARPA’s Robotic ‘Cheetah’ Breaks Sprinting Record [Video]

DARPA’s robotic cheetah is the world’s fastest sprinting robot. The cheetah robot recently set a land speed record for a machine with legs with an 18 mph sprint.

At 18 mph, the robotic cheetah could easily outrun most humans. The cheetah robot could run a mile in 3 minutes and 20 seconds which is faster than the one-mile record for a human of 3:43. That’s pretty impressive, but compared to a real cheetah the robot still has a long way to go. A real cheetah can run as fast as 70 mph.

MSNBC reports that the robotic cheetah, which was created by Boston Dynamics, smashed the previous record of 13.1 mph. The previous record holder, the Planar Biped robot, was built at the MIT Leg Lab in 1989.

Boston Dynamics President Marc Raibert, said:

“This robot is galloping. It’s the first time we’ve had a robot that gallops.”

The robot was developed as part of DARPA’s Maximum Mobility and Manipulation program, or M3. The robot will be used to assist the military.

DARPA writes on its website:

“The use of ground robots in military explosive-ordinance-disposal missions already saves many lives and prevents thousands of other casualties. If the current limitations on mobility and manipulation capabilities of robots can be overcome, robots could much more effectively assist warfighters across a greater range of missions. DARPA’s Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program seeks to create and demonstrate significant scientific and engineering advances in robot mobility and manipulation capabilities.”

Boston Dynamics is also working on a robotic human that will be able to run upright.

Here’s a video of DARPA’s robotic cheetah.