US Military Funded Robotic 'Cheetah' Runs Faster Than Usain Bolt

Faster than the fastest man ever born, a US military funded robotic "Cheetah" clocks 28.3mph to beat its own record. Jamaican sprinter Bolt's current record of 27.8 miles per hour is the fastest a man has ever run, but the Pentagon-funded robot, dubbed Cheetah, managed to run at the speed of 28.3mph. The Cheetah – a quadrupedal machine built by Boston Dynamicsand backed by Darpa, the US Defence Department's research division – not only topped the Olympic 100m and 200m champion's record-setting time, italso beat its previous top speed of 18mph, set just six months ago. However, the robot's developers qualified the achievement. "To be fair, keep in mind that the Cheetah robot runs on a treadmill without wind drag and has an off-board power supply that it does not carry," Boston Dynamics said in a press release. "So Bolt is still the superior athlete." "Our real goal is to create a robot that moves freely outdoors while it runs fast. We are building an outdoor version that we call Wildcat, that should be ready for testing early next year," Dr. Alfred Rizzi, the head of Cheetah programme, said in a statement. According to the US Defence Department Cheetah is being developed for use on terrain where conventional wheels and tracks would struggle and will"contribute to emergency response, humanitarian assistance and other defence missions." Source: Telegraph