The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently showcased their new mini Cheetah in their latest youtube video and it is very interesting. The Video feature MIT’s new mini Cheetah and can be seen doing a variety of maneuvers.
They show Mini Cheetah’s linear, lateral and rotational movements, its balance and orientation control and jumping ability. But none of these can be compared to the best part of the video and that was the backflip. Yes, you read it right the Mini Cheetah can do backflips. With better trajectory optimization Mini Cheetah can do backflips.
The mini Cheetah is based on Cheetah 3. Cheetah debuted in 2017 and was the next generation of the four-legged autonomous robot. Previous versions of Cheetah robot were more of a technology demonstrators rather than having any practical applications but Cheetah 3 is different. With Cheetah 3 they planned on all the technology used in their previous generations Cheetahs and make function search and rescue robot.
They are focusing on better terrain traversing and better payload capacity, as both of these things will help Cheetah 3 in and out of locations unreachable by humans more quickly.
This also allows the Cheetah 3 to carry supply to designated locations. But mini Cheetah is shaping up to be something different as because of its small size it can go to locations which the bigger Cheetah 3 cannot.
So, if you are looking to buy your Mini Cheetah then we are sorry to say it is not for sale, yet. But it is interesting to imagine a future where we can these small pieces of technological marvels in our living room.