The Biomimetic Robotics Lab has spent five years developing a battery-operated, autonomous quadruped, and they’ve been able to teach the robot some amazing tricks. MIT took their robot cheetah for a test run and let it run wild without a tether. With the inclusion of MIT’s newly-developed algorithms, the robot cheetah now has the ability to detect objects, determine the object’s size, and then alter the jump with varying applied force. This results in the robot hurdling right over the obstacle and continuing on at its initial pace. The robot was tested on a treadmill and on a wide open track. Tethered treadmill tests resulted in a 30% failure rate, but the untethered track tests resulted in a 10% failure rate. Distance to object and reaction time is what threw the robot cheetah off. The research team is now teaching the robot to hurdle over objects on grassy terrain.