Robot Cheetah: No Head, but Really Fast

"Robotic cheetah 'breaks speed record for legged robots' "
(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)

Real robots turned out to be - well, let's be honest here. They're useful, but incredibly stupid:

• "Asimov's 3 Laws, Real Robots, and Common Sense"
  (August 20, 2009)

On the other hand, quite a few folks are trying to develop robots that can interact smoothly with humans:

• "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)

"ASIMO Serves First FCX Clarity Customers"

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)