MIT Robotic Cheetah
The cheetah robot has powerful and very lightweight motors and an algorithm that determines the amount of force each leg should exert while it is running. That equation helps the robot to keep its balance and maintain its forward momentum.
"This is kind of a Ferrari in the robotics world, like, we have to put all the expensive components and make it really that instinctive," MIT Professor Sangbae Kim told the Associated Press. "That's the only way to get that speed."
Kim hopes the robot will become invaluable to search and rescue operations in hostile environments and prevent humans having to risk their lives in such situations.
The MIT project is being funded by the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. They are also funding a similar robot being developed by Boston Dynamics.
The project has been ongoing for the last five years and there have been some hiccups. A recent test run of the cheetah robot came to an early end after the device fell and broke one of its front legs. The problem was quickly solved and a few weeks later the cheetah was running along MIT's campus once more, only to make a dodgy jump and break another leg.
Still, the engineers in charge remain optimistimic.
"In the next 10 years, our goal is we are trying to make this robot to save a life," Kim said.
The key to the bounding algorithm is in programming each of the robot's legs to exert a certain amount of force in the split second during which it hits the ground, in order to maintain a given speed: In general, the faster the desired speed, the more force must be applied to propel the robot forward. In experiments the robot sprinted up to 10 mph and MIT researchers estimate the robot may eventually reach speeds of up to 30 mph.
The MIT Cheetah 2 contains the custom electric motor designed by Jeffrey Lang, the Vitesse Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT and the amplifier designed by David Otten, a principal research engineer in MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics.
MIT Cheetah 2 is as efficient as animals. The 10mph running currently consumes 700W, the current platform can run for an hour.In total cost of transport (P/mgv) of the 10mph bounding is 0.5, which is same as a real animal.
From
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MIT Robotic Cheetah
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMKQbqnXXhQ
MIT Robotic Cheetah2
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUmLwKGiyf8&feature=youtu.be
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