Created by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is run by the Pentagon.
The contractor is Boston Dynamics.
It can reach speeds of 18mph (29kmh) on a lab treadmill. The previous record was 13.1 mph.
As a comparison, from Usain Bolt's world record time of 9.58 seconds for the 100m, his average ground speed equates to 23.35mph (37.58kmh). If his reaction time of 0.15 seconds is subtracted, his time is closer to 9.43 seconds, making his average speed closer to 23.72 mph (38.18 km/h).
Six Million Dollar Man Steve Austin's legs allow him to run over 60 mph (the highest speed ever shown in the series on a speed gauge is 66 and 70 mph; the later revival films suggested that he could run faster at a speed of 120 miles per hour,) swim at 40 mph and jump over 40 feet high.
Darpa said the reason for developing such robots is so that they can "more effectively assist war fighters across a greater range of missions. We plan to get off the treadmill and into the field as soon as possible."
The ultimate aim is to create a robot which can "zigzag to chase and evade", and can suddenly stop.
Somehow I visualise the Enforcement Droid Series 209 (ED-209) in the movie RoboCop, going berserk.
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