A Robot That Can Run 50 mph?

DARPA, in association with the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) and partner MIT’s Robot Locomotion Group, have just created a ground breaking robotic leg design while developing the robot, FastRunner.  FastRunner may be capable of reaching speeds as high as 50 mph based on the design.  The robot stands at 4 foot and 66 pounds and the leg design will make the bird more agile and capable of running on different types of terrain.  There is still a lot of work to be done before the bird can be deployed but designers are making significant strides, pun intended, with the FastRunner development and are very hopeful of success.

Opportunities for the FastRunner could be obviously used for the military theatre and natural disaster areas to recover victims as well as finding lost hikers in the vast wilderness.  What if the robot could carry other robots such as snakes which are already developed to swim through debris and inspect the inside of pipes.  These snakes could be teamed with FastRunner for search and rescue missions and deployed into areas where maneuvering is dangerous for humans.  Snakes would have their own cameras and could be called back remotely to the bird when their task was completed.

Imagine the possibilities for practical application.

FastRunner

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/military-robots/this-is-what-darpas-robot-ostrich-will-look-like

http://www.gizmag.com/darpa-fastrunner-robotic-ostrich/20494/