Robot can run faster than Usain Bolt, researchers believe
Members of MIT's Biomimetics Robotics Lab with cheetah robot / Courtesy of MIT News
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have developed a cheetah-shaped robot they believe will run faster than Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.
The institute’s Biomimetics Robotics Lab developed the robot, based on the osseous structure of a cheetah. The robot can run at 16.1km/h and jump on an object 33cm high. The researchers expect the robot can reach 48.28km/h, faster than Bolt can run.
This is not the first cheetah robot. Boston Dynamics has developed a robot that is faster than the MIT robot. But, according to news reports, the MIT robot moves quietly and runs on electricity, not gasoline.
The MIT robot was presented at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Chicago from September 14 to 18.