Meet Mabel, the world's fastest two-legged robot

Sep 25, 2011 |

London

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Scientists have built a two-legged robot called Mabel that can run like a human and reach a record speed of 6.8mph.

The makers of the robot predict that the technology they are refining will bring amazing benefits for the human race.

"We envision some extraordinary potential applications for legged robot research, exoskeletons that enable wheelchair-bound people to walk again or that give rescuers super-human abilities, and powered prosthetic limbs that behave like their biological counterparts," the Daily Mail quoted one of the developers, engineering expert Jonathan Hurst from Oregon State University, as saying.

Professor Jessy Grizzle, from the University of Michigan, where Mabel was built, also stressed how useful human-like robots could be.

"The robotics community has been trying to come up with machines that can go places where humans can go, so a human morphology is important.

"If you would like to send in robots to search for people when a house is on fire, it probably needs to be able to go up and down stairs, step over the baby's toys on the floor and manoeuvre in an environment where wheels and tracks may not be appropriate," he added.

"It's stunning," Professor Grizzle adds. "I have never seen a machine doing a motion like this."

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