In the age of speed, humans are losing their supremacy against robots. A team of scientists from the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has recently created a two-legged robot that can run as fast as 28.58 mph (46 km/h). Although it’s not the fastest one, it outruns Usain Bolt, the sportsman that managed a top speed of 27.44 mph (44.72 km/h) during his iconic men's 100-meter world record dash.
Now imagine you’d ride that electric Marble skateboard on your way to work and you’d be outrun by an extinct reptile look-alike robot. Now that would kind of make you feel slow, won’t it?
The two-legged machine named Raptor can accelerate up to a respectable 28.58 mph (46 km/h), just a little under Cheetah’s speed record (a four leg robot created in 2012), of 29.2 mph (47 km/h). In fact, according to its creators, it uses a much simpler technology such as ordinary springs for tendons and other widely available hardware bits and bobs.
As most running prototype robots created out there, Raptor is confined to running on a treadmill, but its creators hope to make it more stable so it can run on any surface without a tether. On the other hand, the robot is definitely faster than the remote controlled six-legged contraption built recently by the guys from Robotics Unlimited.
Well, it looks the 21st century is all about machines getting smarter, faster and stronger than their human creators. Quite a bummer, isn’t it?
Google News