Robot runs faster than Olympic champion

American scientists have created a robot that could outpace many marathon runners and beat Usain Bolt if it were human-sized.

The robot could reach a speed of 48 km/h if it were as big as a real person.

Scientists have designed a super-fast robot that could prove that humans cannot escape if they are chased by such robots, the Sun reported yesterday. The robot is called Planar Elliptical Runner and can move at a speed of 16 km/h, faster than the average marathon runner.

If it were human-sized, the robot could reach speeds of up to 48 km/h, much faster than the record of 44.7 km/h achieved by Usain Bolt, a multiple Olympic gold medalist, in the 100-meter sprint at the 2009 World Championships.

Researchers at the Human and Machine Cognition Institute in Florida, USA, designed the super-fast robot to prove that robots can walk and run on two legs like humans.

“We believe that the lessons learned from this robot can be applied to many other real-world running robots to make them more efficient and more natural-looking,” said Jerry Pratt, a senior researcher at MIT Technology Review. “Running is really useful for any application where you want to do things quickly and wheels don’t work.”

Handle robot performance

Previously, Boston Dynamics, a robot developer nicknamed the "nightmare factory", launched a hybrid robot with two wheels and four arms called Handle that can stand on four legs. The end of the robot's two hind limbs is equipped with wheels, helping it stand upright and move at a speed of 14.5 km/h.

According to VNE