MIT’s ‘terrifying’ robot cheetah video, and what it means to Google’s self driving car

MIT last week released footage of a “dog” robot that could run at 8km/hour and negotiate hurdles – it has been referred to as a ‘terrifying cheetah’ (watch it on our website and read the full article here (VIEW LINK) ). The technology to do this is awesome, involving object recognition and evasive action which must take place in around 100 milliseconds, around half that of a human being. It will get faster, observed Sangbae Kim, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT which developed the robot. The importance will not be lost on Google – the ability to dodge obstacles in real time is a critical success factor for any autonomous vehicle. And the robot dog certainly can. Separately, Uber recently hired an all-star team of 50 specialist robotics people from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Its aim, of course, is to eventually cut out one of the largest expenses in providing transportation – the driver. As CMU’s Red Whittaker said observed “This is a wide open field.”