The bipedal robot named Cassie, developed by the robotics company Agility Robotics, recently set the Guinness World Record for the 100-meter sprint of a bipedal robot. It took 24.73 seconds to run 100 meters, with an average speed of 4m/s, and did not fall during the process.
Although much slower than humans, it is still impressive for a bipedal robot to do so from the perspective of today’s robotics applications.
Cassie was developed by engineers at Oregon State University, and is the first commercial robot made by Agility Robotics, a robotics company owned by the university.
Instead of using lenses or external sensors to help it operate, it uses machine learning to walk and run on the road.
Not only is it capable of walking and climbing stairs, it even has a basic arm design for picking up and carrying small packages.
The current world record holder for the 100-meter sprint is Jamaica’s Usain Bolt’s men’s 9.58 seconds and American Florence Griffith’s women’s 10.49 seconds. As an ostrich-shaped bipedal robot, Cassie ran 100 meters in 24.73 seconds.
Cassie may be the first bipedal robot to learn to run, Jonathan Hurst, a professor at Oregon State University and co-founder of Agility Robotics, said in a press release. But it won’t be the last, and it’s thought that development in this area will accelerate from here on out.
The developers of Cassie also mentioned that actually running wasn’t the hardest part of the challenge, but getting the robot to start and stop.
Starting and stopping in a standing position is more difficult than running, just as taking off and landing an airplane is more difficult than being in the air, says Oregon State University professor Alan Fern.
Plus, it ran the 5,000-meter challenge on the Oregon State University campus on a single charge.
