Deconstructing the Cheetah

I dare say this might be one of the most beautiful videos I’ve ever seen. Wow.

National Geographic teamed up with the Cincinnati Zoo and a Hollywood action movie crew in order to capture a sprinting cheetah at 1200 frames per second. The result is nothing short of magical.

Here is an animal that can run at nearly 70 mph, the fastest creature on land. It has evolved for two purposes: Speed and killing. Even at top speed, this video shows that its eyes remain locked on the target like laser beams, its head barely moves at all! So what is it that makes the cheetah the fastest animal on land?

A study published earlier this year by Harvard scientists discovered that an animal’s speed increases with body size, but only to a certain point. A gazelle is faster than a mouse, but also faster than an elephant. By studying a certain species of lizard that can vary quite greatly in size, these researchers realized that speed and the length of the gait increase with size until the weight of the animal forces the limbs to adjust their motion to support mass in order to not fall over. You can read about that study here.

The cheetah seems to have achieved nature’s optimal balance of size, running ability and weight. For land animals, at least, we could be looking at evolution’s pinnacle of beautiful speed. And it’s phenomenal to watch.

Head here to learn more about cheetah and big cat conservation.

Boston Dynamics, the people who brought you the spunky little sand flea robot and the brawny BigDog robot, have improved upon their Cheetah robot design.

It can now run a record 28.3 miles per hour. An untethered test is planned for later this year.

That thumping in the video is the sound of your impending robotic doom.

The Key to the Cheetah’s Speed Cheetahs and greyhounds: Both way faster than you or I could ever hope to be. On the surface, they both appear to be built well for speed, with long limbs, enormous strides and slim bodies. Why then, are cheetahs so much faster? A study using a force sensitive race track to count the strides of sprinting animals found that cheetahs are able to actually increase the number of strides per second they take the faster they are going. They’re like F1 cars, they don’t really get in tune until they are at top speed. That’s how wild cheetahs are able to run at a blistering 29 m/s as opposed to the greyhound’s paltry 18-19 m/s. On a side note, the image above is from an ill-fated experiment in 1937, at the height of dog racing popularity in London: The Romford cheetah races. (via ScienceNOW)
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The Key to the Cheetah’s Speed

Cheetahs and greyhounds: Both way faster than you or I could ever hope to be. On the surface, they both appear to be built well for speed, with long limbs, enormous strides and slim bodies. Why then, are cheetahs so much faster?

A study using a force sensitive race track to count the strides of sprinting animals found that cheetahs are able to actually increase the number of strides per second they take the faster they are going. They’re like F1 cars, they don’t really get in tune until they are at top speed.

That’s how wild cheetahs are able to run at a blistering 29 m/s as opposed to the greyhound’s paltry 18-19 m/s.

On a side note, the image above is from an ill-fated experiment in 1937, at the height of dog racing popularity in London: The Romford cheetah races.

(via ScienceNOW)

Source: news.sciencemag.org

From the people who brought you enormous bear-like brawler robots and super-fast terrifying cheetah robots comes a cute little guy called Sand Flea.

… that can jump onto the roof of a building. As Jason Kottke points out, if a person could jump this high, they could clear 315 feet. Because if the big robots don’t get you, the tiny jumping ones will.

Remember this?: I almost forgot how awesome these self-piloting quadrotor robots are, playing the James Bond theme and everything.

(↬ kottke)

Source: kottke.org

If Tiny Flying Robots Don’t Kill You, Large Running Ones Will

Darpa, creator funding agency of robots both cute and scary, has now shown us that you can run, but you can’t hide. Meet the Cheetah, an ambulatory creation that has just set the record for robot landspeed at 18 mph. While it may look like it’s running backwards thanks to its morphology, rest assured that when it’s bearing down on you in a post-apocalyptic wasteland you won’t make the same mistake.

Considering that that fastest humans can sustain around 15 mph, maybe it’s time to start developing bullfighting skills?

In all seriousness, Darpa is pushing the envelope marvelously these days, and this creation is a true feat of genius in technology. They are frontrunners for “Best Government Research Arm of 2012” so far. And for now, at least Cheetah’s connected to those wires.

Previously: Autonomous robot quadrotors play the James Bond theme!

(via The Awl)

Source: The Awl