Meet Cheetah, Boston Dynamics' Terrifyingly Fast Running Robot (Video)

A warning for anyone who imagines a Skynet-ruled world of robot domination: Don’t watch the video below. Or if you do, prepare for nightmares of being chased at 18-miles an hour by a gas-powered steely automaton.

Boston Dynamics, a Waltham, Massachusetts technology firm and DARPA contractor, announced Monday that it’s broken the speed record for legged robots. Its new four-legged creation is Cheetah, which can run at 18 miles an hour, far faster than the 13.1 miles per hour record set by MIT in 1989.

When I spoke with Boston Dynamics ten months ago, the company’s president Marc Raibert told me the firm was building a four-legged robot that would run at 20 mph by late 2012. It seems to be ahead of schedule. As well as hitting that 20 mph mark, the company also aims to take Cheetah out of the lab and onto other terrains. “While 18 mph is a good start, our goal is to get Cheetah running much faster and outdoors,” reads a statement from Boston Dynamics’ chief roboticist Alfred Rizzi. “We designed the treadmill to go over 50 mph, but we plan to get off the treadmill and into the field as soon as possible. We really want to understand the limits of what is possible for fast-moving robots.”

Boston Dynamics rose to fame with its four-legged cargo robot Big Dog, (also captured in a YouTube sensation here) which shows an uncannily life-like ability to walk over terrain and recover its footing even when it slips or is kicked. The firm followed up with Petman, a two-legged prototype that applies the same technology to human-style walking.

In both cases, as with Cheetah, Boston Dynamics’ unique approach was to aim for what it calls “dynamic stability.” Most robots aim to maintain their balance at all points in their movement. But Boston Dynamics’ creations, like humans or other legged animals, are constantly tipping forward, falling and regaining equilibrium with every step.

That approach has allowed them a level of mobility that leaves other robots in the dust. At this rate, it won’t be long before they leave flesh-and-blood animals in the dust, too.