Military Robot Cheetah Runs Faster Than Usain Bolt
Boston Dynamics has managed a new feat with their Cheetah robot, having beaten the personal best of 18mph with a record settings 28.3mph. This makes the Cheetah robot faster than the worlds fastest human Usain Bolt who has a top speed of 27.78mph. Boston Dynamics backed by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) created the robot to “more effectively assist war fighters across a greater range of missions.” While the 28.3mph is a far cry from a real cheetah, which hits top speeds of 75mph it is still an amazing feat of technology. DARPA Program Manager, Gill Pratt has said “What we gain through Cheetah and related research efforts are technological building blocks that create possibilities for a whole range of robots suited to future Department of Defense missions.” Darpa plans to field test the robot in 2013.
Noel Sharkey, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Sheffield said it was “an incredible technical achievement, but it’s unfortunate that it’s going to be used to kill people”. Which is indeed sad, but that tends to be the way it is, with most of today’s technology being made possible by military research and development. A video of the Cheetah robot can be found at the source linked below.
Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield, said the robot was “an incredible technical achievement, but it’s unfortunate that it’s going to be used to kill people”.
“It’s going to be used for chasing people across the desert, I would imagine. I can’t think of many civilian applications – maybe for hunting, or farming, for rounding up sheep.
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