What do you think of Boston Dynamics' WildCat robot?
Boston Dynamics just showed off its latest creation — the WildCat robot.
“WildCat is a four-legged robot being developed to run fast on all types of terrain. So far WildCat has run at about 16 mph on flat terrain using bounding and galloping gaits,” Boston Dynamics states in a video of WildCat in action. “The video shows WildCat’s best performance so far. WildCat is being developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA’s M3 program.”
Although 16 mph may not seem that fast compared to a cheetah, car, boat or even Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt, WildCat can run a less-than-four minute mile, according to Mashable. Unlike Boston Dynamics’ Cheetah, which had a top speed of 28.3 mph, WildCat is untethered.
Also on Thursday, Boston Dynamics added a video of its LS3 robot to YouTube. The new video showed the LS3, which is designed to travel on rough terrain with 400 pounds of load, being field tested in California. Boston Dynamics also posted new video of the company’s Atlas robot.
Since being uploaded to YouTube on Thursday, the WildCat video has received nearly 7.5 million views.
Boston Dynamics’ WildCat robot is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s maximum mobility and manipulation program. CNET notes that, for the time being, Boston Dynamics hasn’t updated its website with information on the WildCat. You can bet, however, the some of its details may remain known only to Boston Dynamics engineers and DARPA researchers.
What do you think of Boston Dynamics’ WildCat robot? Do increasingly agile and intelligent robots make you nervous? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
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