Marvels of technology – robotic cheetah created by MIT, it can jump over obstacles

Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT has developed a robotic cheetah and has trained it to jump over hurdles as it runs. This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 29 May 2015.

MIT claims that this is the first four-legged robot to run and jump over obstacles autonomously. It has been programed to plan out its path in a similar way to a human runner. It estimates the height of the obstacle apart from the distance on approach.
The robot cheetah ‘sees' the obstacle by means of an on-board tool called LIDAR which is a visual system that uses reflections from a laser to map the surrounding terrain. Once that is done, it gauges the best position from which to jump before pushing itself up and over.
The trials of the robot was first carried out on a treadmill while attached to a harness – it managed to clear obstacles 45cm tall while maintaining a speed of 5mph.
The robotic cheetah managed to jump over 90% of obstacles while indoors and it would now be taken outdoors to jump over hurdles on softer terrains like on grass while in the running mode.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.com)

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