Aww: Watch A Robotic Cheetah-Cub Run
A rendering of EPFL's cheetah-cub Courtesy of EPFL The cheetah-cub is the fastest quadruped under about 66 lbs. A mechanical cheetah cub joins the Noah's Ark that has captivated robotics in recent years. Today Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne (EPFL)'s Biorobotics Laboratory (Biorob) published a study detailing experiments on the cheetah-cub quadruped robot. The size of a small house cat (or cheetah cub, which sounds more menacing), this bot has limbs designed to mimic the stealthy moves of a feline. The goal for the cheetah-cub was to create an easy-to control platform, with a focus on locomotion--the rhythm and mechanics of how it moves. The legs were designed to be fast and stable, which work well for tough terrain and research missions. Modeled after mammalian animals' three-segment legs, the cheetah-cub has springs embedded within its agile legs. The springs act as tendons, and small motors called actuators are the...