The dinosaurs may have been wiped out from the face of the Earth millions of years ago, but there's a new breed of these ferocious creatures - the robotic breed. And they have proven to run faster than the fastest man alive.
Meet Raptor, named for the velociraptor. Though its makers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have dropped off the "veloci" prefix that means "fast," Raptor's light but powerful legs can keep it running at speeds up to 46 kph. That's not faster than the fastest running robot there is, Cheetah by Boston Dynamics, which can clock in at a speed up to 47 kph, but Raptor can easily overtake Olympic runner Usain Bolt, whose fastest record is 44.72 kph.
In 2012, when Boston Dynamics introduced Cheetah and its first speed test results, the robot was able to run an average of 30 kph before reaching its record-breaking 47 kph a few months after. Given time, Raptor can most likely increase its speed to go even faster. In fact, The Spectrum by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) reports that Raptor just recently topped Cheetah's record with a new speed of 48 kph, but the robot's creators are sticking with 46 kph as its official speed at which it can run in a stable manner.
"Raptor is a fast-running biped robot developed by MSC Lab, KAIST. It has two under-actuated legs and a tail inspired by velociraptors. The Raptor robot runs at a speed of 46 km/h on a treadmill with off-board power. Tail-assisted pitch control provides stability over high obstacles," says BMG KAIST.
While Cheetah is a bulky, solid quadruped powered by hydraulic actuators, Raptor is a 3-kilogram agile two-legged machine with carbon-fiber prosthetic blades in place of feet. It has only one motor per leg and has Achilles tendons that serve as shock absorbers and restore energy with every step.
Raptor uses a technology called active tail stabilization that allows it to avoid obstacles by jumping over them or leaning to the side without tripping over. The tail doesn't look much like a velociraptor's tail but more like a pole attached to the side of the robot that spins as it runs to provide balance to the sprinting robot.
The video below demonstrates Raptor increasing its speed as it runs on a treadmill. Watch out for the slow-motion replay of the part where Raptor jumps over a wooden block obstacle.
As for dinosaur robots chasing after humans, it's not going to happen soon. Both Cheetah and Raptor are still on training wheels, or training arms, in this case. They need to be attached to a stabilizer rail so they don't fall over while running at high speed. Once they grow out of the arm support, however, there's no knowing how fast those robots could go.
