World's fastest two-legged robot developed at Oregon State University

Students and alumni of the engineering program at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore., have created a two-legged robot named Cassie who recently set a Guinness WorldCassie clocked a time of 24.73 seconds at Oregon State’s Whyte Track and Field Center, starting from a standing position and returning to that position after she finished the sprint, with no falls.You may have noticed Cassie had a little trouble staying in her lane; this is because she operates with no cameras or external sensors–she is, essentially, blind.

According to the engineers at Agility Robotics, she trained one year for this race in a simulation environment, which was compressed to a week through a computing software known as parallelization. Parallelization helps the robot learn, going through different techniques and calculations that are happening at the same time.

Although Cassie came up a little short of Florence Griffith Joyner’s 100m world-record time of 10.49 seconds, the engineers behind it called her accomplishment “a big watershed moment” for robotics.

“This may be the first bipedal robot to learn to run, but it won’t be the last,” said OSU professor Alan Fern. “The exciting part of this race is the potential. I think progress is only going to accelerate from here.”

We may not see Cassie at the Olympics in 2024, but I wouldn’t rule her out as an Olympic 100m favourite in 2036. Record for the fastest 100m by a bipedal robot.

posted Saturday October 8th
by Running Magazine