(March 6, 2012)
(from Darpa, via BBC News, used w/o permission)
"Footage of the robot in action - courtesy Darpa"
"A headless robot dubbed 'Cheetah' has set a new world speed record, according to its owners.
"The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said the four-legged machine achieved 18mph (29km/h) on a laboratory treadmill.
"The agency said the previous land speed record by a legged robot was 13.1mph.
"Darpa said that the project was part of efforts to develop robots designed to 'more effectively assist war fighters across a greater range of missions'.
"Darpa - which is run by the Pentagon - funded the Massachusetts robotics company Boston Dynamics to build the machine.
" 'We plan to get off the treadmill and into the field as soon as possible,' said the firm's chief robotics scientist, Alfred Rizzi, in a statement.
" 'We really want to understand what is possible for fast-moving robots.'..."
There's quite a range of options for how to react to this news from DARPA. We have the occasionally-technophobic thing we see in the movies and novels:
- "HAL 9000, Skynet, and C3PO"
Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space(January 26, 2010) - "January 25, 2011
Nine Decades of Robots Turning on Their Masters"
(January 25, 2011)
- "Asimov's 3 Laws, Real Robots, and Common Sense"
(August 20, 2009)
- "Robovie-II and Robovie-IV: Robot Assistants for Store and Office"
(January 7, 2010) - "Asimo Robots: We'd Better Get Used to This"
(November 12, 2009) - "Better Ideas From Japan: 'Robocop' Rolled Out"
(January 24, 2009)
Honda, YouTube (June 27, 2008)
video, 3:11
Related posts:
- "Mars Rover Spirit: Not Bad for a Limited-Warranty Robot"
(May 26, 2011) - "Flying Mechanical Penguins"
(February 12, 2011) - "Nine Decades of Robots Turning on Their Masters"
(January 25, 2011) - "Meet Fenway the Robot, Hospital Helper"
(September 21, 2010) - "The Robots are Coming! The Robots are Coming!"
(November 4, 2009)
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