16-11-2011, 04:04 AM
DARPA Developing Fast Running Robot
November 15th, 2011Via: Wired:Today's robots move about as fast as your grandma's morning mall-walking group. Tomorrow's robots will move as fast as Usain Bolt all thanks to limbs modeled on ostrich legs.
That's exactly the point, according to the Darpa-funded researchers behind a collaborative effort underway at MIT and the Florida Institute of Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC). Only one year into a four-year research contract, the team is showing off stunning results that are expected to produce the fastest, most agile bot ever. He's called FastRunner, and he'll zip along at 10 times the speed of a standard mobile robot, which clocks a mere 3 miles per hour.
"We're using principles found in biology to build efficiency and speed right into the robot," Johnny Godowski, a research associate at IHMC, tells Danger Room. "And we're confident that this will open up the possibility for humanoid robots that are useful in all sorts of situations military for one, but also fire rescues or natural disasters, for example."
Already, the team has developed a simulation of FastRunner's eventual capabilities and a full test leg that can zip along at 27 miles an hour the same pace as Usain Bolt's record-setting 2009 sprint. Eventually, they hope to see the bot hit speeds in excess of "30, 40, 50 miles an hour," according to Dr. Russ Tedrake at MIT.
Posted in Rise of the Machines, Technology, War