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DARPA-Funded 'Cheetah' Breaks Speed Record For Legged Robots
Sparrowvsrevolution writes "Boston Dynamics, a Waltham, Massachusetts technology firm and DARPA contractor, announced Monday that it's broken the speed record for running, legged robots. Its new four-legged creation is Cheetah, a robot that can run at 18 miles an hour, far faster than the 13.1 miles per hour record set by MIT in 1989. The video it's released shows Cheetah running on a treadmill, but the company hopes to both increase the robot's speed and take it onto outdoor terrain in the near future. Boston Dynamics rose to fame with its four-legged cargo robot Big Dog which showed an uncanny ability to walk over terrain and recover its footing even when it slips or is kicked. The firm followed up with Petman, a two-legged prototype that applies the same technology to human-style walking."
Our fast moving robotic overlords! Kinda scary to think about the military applications...
my mom posts on slashdot.
A good companion project would be smaller robot that runs at only 9mph but for longer distances. Call it "Gazelle"
... is Cheetos
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
At 18 mph tops, a better name would be Hippo.
I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
Or does that thing look like its running backwards?
I thought that robot was kinda cool because it showed how superhumanly fast and agile our robot overlords will become.
Even if this robot (when eventually built with an on board power supply) can "only" go 18 mph, remember that unlike a real cheetah, it will presumably be able to keep it up for miles (I think cheetahs can only maintain this speed for a quarter mile). That's because the real cheetah is limited by heat buildup, presumably the motors and power source of this inorganic machine can operate at much higher temperatures so is limited not by heat buildup but fuel capacity.
Pretty scary if one of these things was chasing you down.
Right. Because the only use of a running robot is killing people. Also, nothing DARPA ever worked on contributed to society. Especially not ARPANET.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
I watched the videos and all I could think was, can we feed it off the local terrain?
If necessary can we eat it?
Seriously, the support systems for these will need to be as complex as the machines themselves. However, they are pretty cool.
-sh
This is not a political statement. This is not legal advice. It's a frick'n Slasdot post. However: I'm Running For
If it can backpeddle at 18MPH, how fast can it go forward?
As impressive as it is for a walking robot to achieve this kind of speed, I'd be a lot more impressed if it were demonstrating the ability to adapt to real terrain while doing so. Running on a treadmill is a disgustingly controlled environment compared to the real worlds, and what I've always found fascinating about robotics is the ideas people have for algorithms that can adapt to an unpredictable and far-from-level world.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Anyone else thought this cheetah is running ass-backwards? I kept waiting for the treadmill to reverse....
First impression; headless robot chicken that dances. At 18mph, the waddling stopped and it looked like a headless goat zombie cyborg from hell. God help us all.
2) I can't tell the head from the tail.
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
It couldn't help the crew of the Planet Express ship but, I wonder if they rubbed cheetah blood on it?
When the source is open, the possibilities are endless.
Here's a random video of cheetahs running. Notice how the cheetah extends it spine when pushing off with its back legs, and contracts it when landing on its front legs? It seems like this would be a simple improvement for a robot "spine", which doesn't have a spinal cord in it: Just add a piston in the middle to expand and contract.
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
At 16 mph you could qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials in the men's 1500 M. At 18 mph you could set the world record in the 1500 and take home a gold medal. At 18.6 mph you are unrelenting.
I don't know man, I really can't think of a lot of things to do with a robot other than having it run after terrified people. Terminator ruined me.
Yes. Of all the cheetah robots which can run at 18mph, this one is definitely the worst.
Jeez give them a break.
Why exactly are they developing something like this? For what practical use is a quadrapedal robot that can outrun a human? Why don't they just give it big metal teeth an an unquenchable thirst for blood?
It's amazing that at a time when we have people short on food, housing, education, and basic medical care in the US, that there's no shortage of money for researching how to kill people better. At least we can still say we're #1 at something... :|
I don't respond to AC's.
Personally I'd worry more about getting an onboard powerplant, but that's just me.
Good point. So why can't we spend research on healing people, growing more food, educating people, etc. and let the military pick up the byproducts from that research to kill people better, instead of the other way around?
I don't respond to AC's.
and let the military pick up the byproducts from that research to kill people better
Anyone foolish enough to do that would be eradicated by a country that spends more money on its military. You are descended from a long line of bloodthirsty merciless warriors who vanquished pacifists and lesser warriors and raped what women they left behind. OK, that's a small exageration, but still. We are still alive because of the defenses we have erected.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
2.5 MPH = 4 kph
10 MPH = 16 kph
12.5 MPH = 20 kph
18.5 MPH = 30 kph
It's funny how you get all round numbers when you convert to standard units.
Say what you will but I live close enough to Waltham that I'm now worried about these things coming to my house in the middle of the night. It's like a prototype for the Rat Things in Snow Crash...
DARPA has been very successful in getting the general public and academia involved in helping them to figure out how to make war robots, which you've gotta admit has to be their only goal.
They are a cool group, to be sure, but should we really be so enthusiastic? I mean JDAM's are cool and all, but personal house invasion robot's are not.
And they are inevitable. But why accelerate the process?
expandfairuse.org
So the robot can run in a straight line on a perfectly smooth surface with perfect traction; cool but it has a long way to go. Wait till one of those spikes it call feet digs in or slides on some gravel. Show me when you can do this outside in real terrain.
You know, Big Dog started on a treadmill also. It may surprise you to learn that they don't build a completely autonomous prototype every time they want to test new things.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
This was really cool to watch, but I'm not sure how having a fast robot with appendages like these would be advantageous over a mobile robot with wheels/treads, which can already handle outdoor terrain and move considerably faster than Cheetah's 18mph. Thoughts?
BTW, how did that ARPANET project turn out?
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
Of course DARPA provided ARPANET, but the kind of global network would have been inevitably created. Military spending is not necessary; it's just the current paradigm. Research is being globally fueled by our fear of others, which is also being instigated for militarist purposes. The reality could be different.
everytime researchers try to make something that can walk/run/whatever, they rely on components that are far less versatile than that which they are trying to emulate. i'm talking about replacing muscles with servos and other stuff. with the recent discovery of "muscle wire" i would think researchers would use this wire to build complex muscles making it possible to replace a lot of actuators with a single complex muscle.
while very cool, i think they are going about this all wrong.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
The first is as a scout- basically, the robot can walk point, look for potential ambushes or IEDs, run behind and see if anyone is following, or run up to the top of a hill to look around. A human could do the exact same thing, of course, but these are dangerous roles, and the robot is expendable.
The second role is to act as a highly mobile fire team. Assuming you built a larger version of this thing, about the size of a person, you could arm it with a light machine gun. If a unit comes under attack, the robot could then rapidly move to take another position and shoot back at the enemy or provide covering fire. Again, this role could also be performed by a person, but it's less dangerous to have the robot open fire while you're pinned down than to stand up and risk getting shot.
The third role is the one that immediately leaps to mind when you see this thing run, and that's a hunter-killer. This is the first robot that can actually chase down a person. A robotic vehicle might be faster, but it can't move over uneven terrain. Big Dog can move over uneven terrain, but it's not fast enough. You can hide from a flying drone. This thing could chase down and kill people. Stick a gun on it, or perhaps a Hellfire missile, and you'd have the terrestrial equivalent of a Predator drone.
If this is considered a milestone, why did it take us so long to achieve a 35% increase in speed? The last time someone played with this technology there was no Internet...
Did you just say the U.S. is planning to eradicate the rest of the world?
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
that it can go 18 mph.
they can't go 18 mph. it's not 'arrogance', its just pointing out a very simple fact.
Those are two steps, at the absolute minimum.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
Is this the dumbing down of science ? I design autonomous robots. Running on a treadmill is nothing compared to running on terrain! Running on a treadmill the feet and stride do not need to adapt for the terrain. The balance algorithm isn't as complicated if you are running on a treadmill. I'd imagine that this robot is pretty easy to knock off it's feet.
feet, stride, gait, and balance all need to be adaptable when walking on terrain.
I think a real Cheeta with a controllable collar would be more useful. Even better, a swarm of collar controlled Rats.
I believe Mr. Ronson presented that argument already.
I couldn't help but think of this with the mention of the big dog getting kicked... http://bootstrike.com/LaughterHell/Featured/kick12.php
You are aware that the US spends approximately the same amount on military as does the entire rest of the world combined...? Maybe we could dial that down just a little bit.
Have you seen the recently demonstrated ability of the copter droids to observe, map, and avoid obstacles in real time? Eventually these will be able to do that too, dodging out of the way of an RPG. The counter would be a guided RPG with proximity detonation, but those are far more rare and expensive. In the case of a firearm they'll be able to interpolate your point of aim and avoid that location much more rapidly than you can adjust to aim.