Researchers have created a new robot that is so quick it can outrun an Olympic track star.
Researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) lab built Raptor, a robot that reportedly has a top speed of 46 kilometers per hour, or 28.6 mph, on a treadmill, according to a report by Discovery News.
The robot is faster than sprinter Usain Bolt, the fastest human ever, whose top speed is around 43.92 km/hr, or 27.44 mph, according to Geek.com.
Inspired by the velociraptor, a predatory dinosaur which lived 75 million years ago, the researchers built the robot with two metal legs, each equipped with a shock absorbing achilles tendon-like component and carbon epoxy composite blades, which act like all-in-one legs-calves-feet, according to Jongwon Park, a PhD student at KAIST's Mechatronics, Systems, and Control Laboratory.
Park developed the robot with his colleagues Jinyi Lee, Jinwoo Lee, Kyung-Soo Kim, and Professor Soohyun Kim.
The Raptor is also nearly as fast as Cheetah, the first robot to top Bolt's record speed, with a time of 29.3 mph.
Despite a few similarities, the two speed-demons are a contrast in engineering styles.
The Cheetah is large and bulky, whereas the Raptor is lightweight and lithe.
The entire operation is balanced by a spinning tail, according to Discovery News.
Even though Cheetah is faster than Raptor, when Boston Dynamics first debuted Cheetah, it could only reach a top speed of 18 mph. If the newer bot can be recalibrated toward a more efficient time, it could eventually become faster than Cheetah.
A video of Raptor shows the robot increasing in speed until it finally reaches 46 km/hr, while also showcasing its ability to dodge objects.
See Now: OnePlus 6: How Different Will It Be From OnePlus 5?
