Watch MIT’s ‘Virtually Indestructible’ Mini Cheetah Robots Do Backflips and Play Soccer
Written by SOURCE on November 8, 2019
Boston Dynamics routinely scare the world by showing how capable its robots are, but now it’s the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s turn. In a new video published by MIT, the Mini Cheetah robots and their capabilities are shown. The small quadrupedal robots are able to do backflips and hop around, and according to MIT they’re also “virtually indestructible.”
“A big part of why we built this robot is that it makes it so easy to experiment and just try crazy things, because the robot is super robust and doesn’t break easily,” MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Benjamin Katz said. “Eventually, I’m hoping we could have a robotic dog race through an obstacle course, where each team controls a mini cheetah with different algorithms, and we can see which strategy is more effective,” associate professor of mechanical engineering Sangbae Kim added. “That’s how you accelerate research.”
Admittedly impressive technology, the Mini Cheetah is a smaller version of the Cheetah 3.
Most of the replies to a tweet from @RobotAndAIWorld calling the Mini Cheetahs “cute” are filled with concern, however, with one user even highlighting the resemblance to the Black Mirror episode “Metalhead.”
Thankfully, the robots currently do not make their own decisions on where to go and what to do. Instead, the technology allows them to navigate difficult terrain and recover from any falls, but as of right now they’re not quite part of the Skynet takeover everyone is so scared of.
