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发帖数: 14557 | 2 http://www.informationweek.com/government/mobile/darpa-cheetah-
DARPA Cheetah Robot Sets World Speed Record
DARPA bot sets new world record that's faster than Usain Bolt's human record.
By Patience Wait InformationWeek
September 07, 2012 03:47 PM
A robot has outpaced the world's fastest man, six-time Olympic gold medalist
Usain Bolt.
The four-legged robot, dubbed Cheetah and developed by Boston Dynamics on
behalf of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, set a speed record
of 28.3 miles per hour over 20 meters. Bolt, who won three gold medals in
the 2012 Olympics in London, set a human record in 2009 with a top speed of
27.78 mph for 20 meters during a 100-meter sprint.
Cheetah did have an advantage, as its record-setting performance was done on
a treadmill. That was comparable to running with a tail wind, since most of
the robot's effort was used to lift and swing its legs fast enough to keep
pace, not to propel it.
The robot had already claimed the world record for legged robots in March,
when it ran 18 mph on the treadmill. The previous record of 13.1 mph was set
in 1989.
Cheetah is powered by an outside hydraulic pump, and a boom-like arm keeps
it centered on the treadmill. The 57% speed gain came from improved control
algorithms and a more powerful pump.
Cheetah was developed as part of DARPA's Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (
M3) program. Legged robots would be useful in rough terrain because they can
step over obstacles or ditches. Yet, because it's difficult to coordinate
leg movement, legged robots have sacrificed speed for balance and mobility.
Cheetah's movements are based on the way fast animals run in nature, by
flexing and straightening its back on each step, for example. DARPA is
attempting to build robots with "core capabilities that living organisms
have refined over millennia of evolution: efficient locomotion, manipulation
of objects, and adaptability to environments," said M3 program manager Gill
Pratt in a statement on Cheetah's achievement.
Cheetah "borrows ideas from nature's design" in its stride patterns, flexing
and unflexing of parts, placement of limbs, and stability, Pratt said. |
