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A team of researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have created a new sprinting robot inspired by a velociraptor.
The robot, dubbed the Raptor, runs on two legs, and is capable of running 46 kilometers per hour (kph), or 28 miles per hour (mph), on a treadmill, according to CNET.
Raptor can run faster than Usain Bolt, Olympic sprinter and the fastest known human, who has a recorded top speed of 44.7kph (27.44 mph). The robot is almost as fast as Boston Dynamics’ Cheetah, which can run at 47kph (29.3 mph).
Inspired by the velociraptor, a predatory dinosaur which lived 75 million years ago, the researchers built the robot with two metal legs, each equipped with a shock absorbing achilles tendon-like component and carbon epoxy composite blades, which act like all-in-one legs-calves-feet, according to Jongwon Park, a PhD student at KAIST’s Mechatronics, Systems, and Control Laboratory.
Park developed the robot with his colleagues Jinyi Lee, Jinwoo Lee, Kyung-Soo Kim, and Professor Soohyun Kim.
The Raptor is also nearly as fast as Cheetah, the first robot to top Bolt’s record speed, with a time of 29.3 mph.
Despite a few similarities, the two speed-demons are a contrast in engineering styles.
The Cheetah is large and bulky, whereas the Raptor is lightweight and lithe.
The entire operation is balanced by a spinning tail, according to Discovery News.
Even though Cheetah is faster than Raptor, when Boston Dynamics first debuted Cheetah, it could only reach a top speed of 18 mph. If the newer bot can be recalibrated toward a more efficient time, it could eventually become faster than Cheetah.
Agencies/Canadajournal
