Skip to main content

MIT has a robotic mini-cheetah that can do backflips. Humanity is doomed

Backflipping MIT Mini Cheetah

What’s scarier than a cheetah, one of nature’s most awesome big cats? A robot cheetah, of course. What’s scarier than a robot cheetah? A backflipping robot cheetah, created by the evidently fiendishly brilliant robotics geniuses over at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Recommended Videos

Clearly taking their cue from the example set by nearby Boston Dynamics’ backflipping Atlas robot, MIT researchers have developed a “Mini Cheetah” robot that’s capable of pulling off some dazzling athletic maneuvers. While its 20-pound weight makes it somewhat more diminutive than the 100-plus pound real animal it’s based on, MIT’s robocat nonetheless impresses. According to its creators, it’s able to trot over uneven terrain at speeds around twice as fast as an average person’s walking speed. In addition to its big backflipping party piece, it can also scoot sideways and backward, rotate its body while moving, hop around, roll its shoulders, and even prance about in leaves like a cute little over-excited puppy.

MIT

However, one of its most impressive features also looks the meanest when shown off in MIT’s demo reel. While the cheetah-bot can cope handily with being kicked and pushed, when it does get knocked over it’s capable of climbing easily back to its feet. That’s a crucial skill if a robot like this was to be used in a real-world scenario such as carrying out inspection tasks, surveillance, or rescue missions.

This isn’t the only cheetah robot that MIT has developed. As its name hints, Mini Cheetah has a larger sibling. As shown off last year, MIT’s Cheetah 3 robot can leap and gallop across rough terrain, climb up staircases littered with debris, leap terrifyingly onto desks, and neatly recover its balance when it’s yanked or shoved. For power, it crunches on human biomatter which it … no, we’re just kidding about that bit! We don’t want to give its creators any undue ideas.

There’s no word on whether MIT plans to commercialize Mini Cheetah, although there are other four-legged robots on the market (or soon to be on the market) if you’re interested. We’re totally saving up our money just in case an MIT spinoff decides this would be a lucrative venture, though.

Luke Dormehl
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
Tiny insect-inspired robot has speed of a cockroach and agility of a cheetah
insect robot sticky footpads robotbricks bn 1

The robot is built of a layered material that bends and contracts when an electric voltage is applied, allowing it to scurry across the floor with nearly the speed of an actual cockroach. UC Berkeley photo courtesy of Jiaming Liang & Liwei Lin

Scaling vertical walls and even hanging from the ceiling: Insects have an incredible ability to maneuver in ways impossible for larger mammals. Now, scientists from the University of Berkeley are taking inspiration from this class of animals to design a fast, agile, tiny robot.

Read more
Part Terminator, part Tremors: This robotic worm can swim through sand
Robot sand worm hawkes uc santa barbara

“That's how they git you. They're under the goddamned ground!” So says Val McKee, the hired hand played by Kevin Bacon in 1990’s classic comedy creature feature, Tremors. McKee is referring to the Graboids, an invertebrate species of monstrous giant worms which travel underground, pushing aside dirt while they dig.

The folks at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Georgia Institute of Technology have been working on a robot that’s not a million miles from the Graboids. While it’s currently a lot smaller, and far less prone to munching on unsuspecting cattle and humans, it’s nonetheless a tunneling, snake-inspired creation that’s able to burrow through soil or soft sand. And maybe, its creators claim, even one day the surface regolith found on other planets. Is this the future of space rovers yet to come?

Read more
Robot vacuum with triple lidar system has eyes to help it avoid poop
robot vacuum uses triple lidar avoid dog poop 360 s10

Robot vacuums are supposed to help clean your home, not dirty it up in a catastrophic way. That's why tales of robot vacuums running over poop and smearing it across the floor create so much schadenfreude -- while it's hilarious to hear about, it's not so much fun when it happens to you. The 360 Smart Life Robot Vacuum Cleaner has eyes to help it detect such messes and obstacles before there are any mishaps.

How, exactly? Does it have a built-in poop sensor? Not really -- but it does use a triple light detection and ranging (lidar) system to better identify slim objects on the ground in front of it, including pet-induced Tootsie Rolls. Most modern robot vacuums use only a single sensor, which gives them something of a "2D" view. While they are aware of potential objects in their path, the devices do not receive enough information to judge its size.

Read more