The Cheetah team at MIT has already shown that they’re pretty good with making robots and their latest creation just might be their most impressive robot so far. Some of the robots that they have previously made are capable of jumping through hurdles and even navigating blindly. This new robot can do backflips.
The new Mini Cheetah robot weighs just 20 pounds and can perform several different actions. The team calls it “virtually indestructible” and that does appear to be the message you take away from the video released by the team.
This robot can run at speeds of up to five miles per hour and can also do a 360 degree backflip from a standing position. It can even right itself quickly after it’s kicked to the ground.
It would also be easier to repair if the robot ever gets damaged since each of the four legs use three inexpensive electric motors. So when a part fails, all you have to do is swap it out for a new one. Lead developer Benjamin Katz said that “because the robot is super robust and doesn’t break easily, and if it does break, it’s easy and not very expensive to fix.”
The MIT is creating 10 more of such robots in order to “to form a mini cheetah research consortium of engineers, who can invent, swap, and even compete with new ideas.”
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