Boston is a big city for robotics right now. Remember the viral Vine video of a robotic dog having some issues? That came from Boston Dynamics. But they’re seeing some robotic animal competition now from MIT.
The back-flipping, self-orienting, hopping, running, quadrupedal MIT Mini Cheetah robot each way about 20 pounds and use 12 separate motors for power.
Tech Acute reports:
According to their lead developer Benjamin Katz, the robots are modular, meaning if a limb or motor were to break, it can easily be replaced.
Next to being durable, the Mini Cheetah is designed in such a way that it makes it easy to fix and modify if necessary. They are hoping that this level of flexibility will make the robots appealing to researchers who wouldn’t otherwise have access to the technology.
Will these be used for security?
MIT’s Mini Cheetah robot is very similar to Boston Dynamics’ Spot, a robot which can handle rough terrain and features remote control and autonomy capabilities.
But Boston Dynamics is already selling Spot for use in monitoring construction sites, oil and power installations, etc. The MIT project is not for sale.
Related: Why Robotics & Drones Are the Real Deal for Security
We’ve already covered the reasons why integrators may want to familiarize themselves with drones if they work any security jobs: the ability to deploy advanced video analytics, perform scheduled patrols, and more make surveillance drones and security robots enticing.
We’ve seen direct evidence that this is an area of interest by virtue of their being a drone arena at Integrated Systems Europe. Where else where we begin to see these technologies take hold?
