For years, engineers have been looking to nature for inspiration in building advanced robots with notable capabilities. In particular, robots aimed at breaking land-speed records have mimicked the movements and body shapes of sleek and speedy cats, such as cheetahs. However, according to Discovery News, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) went a different direction for the template of their new robot design.

Indeed, instead of looking to big cats for ideas, the engineers at KAIST built their high-speed sprinting robot based on a velociraptor.   While we generally think of the cheetah whenever a conversation about the world’s fastest animals arises, velociraptors were the speed kings during the age of dinosaurs, using two daft and dextrous legs for rapid movement and a tail for balance and support. KAIST took those concepts and channeled them into a lightweight mechanical design, which in a recent speed test managed a 46 kilometer per hour rate on a treadmill.

That rate is impressive enough given how it thoroughly outstrips human speed. Even Usain Bolt, an Olympian widely recognized as the fastest man on Earth, can only muster a top speed of about 44 kilometers per hour. However, perhaps even more impressive is  the fact that the velociraptor design very nearly matches the cheetah for high-speed robotic records. Two years ago, a tech company called Boston Dynamics set the robot speed record with a cheetah prototype, which scored 47 kilometers per hour in the treadmill test.

Currently, both robots – fittingly named “Raptor” and “Cheetah” – can only achieve top speeds when connected to tethers and beams that help them retain power and stay steady when roaring along along at more than 40 kilometers an hour.