Korean researchers successfully developed a velociraptor robot that can run up to 46 kilometers, around 28 miles, per hour.
Jongwon Park, lead researcher from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and his colleagues drew inspiration from a velociraptor in designing the "Raptor." The robot has two nimble legs and a mechanism that looks like its tail.
The researchers noted its highest attained speed of 46 kilometers per hour on a treadmill, a speed faster than Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, the fastest human with a recorded top speed of 43.92 kph.
The tail of the velociraptor robot helped maintain the robot's stability while avoiding obstacles. The researchers created a video (see below) showing the robot's performance until it reached its top speed despite the presence of obstacles, IEEE Spectrum reported.
The velociraptor robot is not the first to have legs with carbon-fiber running blades. Several years ago, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) developed a six-legged All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer (ATHLETE) lunar robot that could efficiently drive over stable, gently rolling terrain.
Unlike other legged robots, the Raptor boasted of its simplicity because of its uncomplicated design. It only has one motor per leg in which the researchers added Achilles tendons that function as springs. Even its control system is also simple with a computer program provisioned to regulate the pace of the 3-kilogram robot.
KAIST is still working in rearranging the velociraptor robot to enhance its control and stability. The researchers did not tell whether they plan to make the Raptor walk to other places.
"[O]nly about half the earth's landmass is accessible to existing wheeled and tracked vehicles. It should be possible to build legged vehicles that can go to the places that animals [on foot] can now reach," Marc Raibert of the City University of New York wrote, quoted by Tech Times.
