“In five to 10 years it should be able to do more physical work like disassembling a power plant by cutting pieces and bringing them out. “We believe the Cheetah III will be able to navigate in a power plant with radiation in two or three years,” says Kim. Kim and his team studied the requirements for an emergency response robot and worked backward. Unlike the earlier versions, the Cheetah III design was motivated more by potential applications than pure research. “Our high torque electric motors have exceeded the efficiency of animals with biological muscles, and are much more efficient, cheaper, and faster than hydraulic robots,” he says. To accomplish this, Kim opted for electric rather than hydraulic actuators. “Efficiency is a serious issue with hydraulics, especially when you move fast,” he adds.Ī chief goal of the Cheetah project has been to create actuators that can generate high torque in designs that imitate animal muscles while also achieving efficiency. Hydraulically powered, dynamic legged robots, such as the larger, higher-payload, quadruped Big Dog from Boston Dynamics, can achieve very high force and power, but at the expense of efficiency. Factory robots use high torque actuators but they are rigid and cannot absorb energy upon the impact that results from climbing steps. Robots tend to achieve high torque at the expense of speed and flexibility, says Kim. “A human hip joint can generate more torque than a sports car, but achieving such condensed high torque actuation in robots is a big challenge.” One challenge with legged systems is that they “need high torque actuators,” says Kim. Dynamic legged robots can help us conquer mobility on the ground.” ![]() None of our transportation technologies can reliably travel over natural ground or even man-made environments with stairs and curbs. “We have conquered air and water transportation, but we haven’t conquered ground mobility because our technologies still rely on artificially paved roads or rails. “With the Cheetah project, I was initially motivated by copying land animals, but I also realized there was a gap in ground mobility,” says Kim. There’s also an early stage investigation into applying Cheetah-like actuator technology to address mobility challenges among the disabled and elderly. Other projects include a teleoperated humanoid robot called the Hermes that provides haptic feedback to human operators. The Biomimetic Robotics Lab is also finishing up a smaller, stripped down version of the Cheetah, called the Mini Cheetah, designed for robotics research and education. ![]() It can do high-speed motion and powerful actions, but it can also be very precise.” “With the Cheetah III, we put a lot of practical requirements on the design so it can be an all-around player. “The Cheetah II was focused on high speed locomotion and agile jumping, but was not designed to perform other tasks,” says Kim. ![]() It will then evolve to serve other emergency response needs. The Cheetah III will initially act as a spectral inspection robot in hazardous environments such as a compromised nuclear plant or chemical factory. Instead of improving the Cheetah’s speed and jumping capabilities, Kim is converting the Cheetah into a commercially viable robot with enhancements such as a greater payload capability, wider range of motion, and a dexterous gripping function. Kim is now developing a third-generation robot, the Cheetah III. The robot can also autonomously determine how to avoid or jump over obstacles. The dog-sized Cheetah II can run on four articulated legs at up to 6.4 meters per second, make mild running turns, and leap to a height of 60 centimeters. Developed by the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering's Biomimetic Robotics Lab under the direction of Associate Professor Sangbae Kim, the quadruped MIT Cheetah has made headlines for its dynamic legged gait, speed, jumping ability, and biomimetic design. ![]() If you were to ask someone to name a new technology that emerged from MIT in the 21st century, there’s a good chance they would name the robotic cheetah.
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