Breaking News
Everything I Warned You About Just Happened... All in One Week
Your Grief, My Grief, Our Grief in the Loss of a Loved One
Vance: Federal Government Has Identified $230 Billion In Fraud Since March
Saudi Arabia's $5 Oil Detour Is Expensive... But Worth It
Top Tech News
What could possibly go wrong? Scientists use AI to design new viruses
Dual-motor suitcase drive underpins 3,000-hp hypercar
DoorDash Wins Federal Approval To Fly Its Own Delivery Drones
Shade-Resistant Solar Cells Retain 97% Efficiency After 2,000 Hours of Testing
20 Ancient Engineering SECRETS
Stonehenge Was Reanalyzed by AI -- And the Findings Are Hard to Explain
After Years Of Delays, Aptera Is Finally Preparing To Build Customer Cars
'When you kill it, it doesn't die': the jellyfish that has cracked the secret of immorta
Archer Aviation debuts Halo autonomous VTOL, Thunder's commercial twin
US Telecoms Slide On Starlink Mobile Threat; Bernstein Sees It As A "Jab, But No Knockout Yet**
Soft-bodied robot channels the cheetah to move fast
The world's fastest land animal, cheetahs run by rapidly flexing their spines between two stable states. A consortium of American scientists recently set out to replicate that motion in a soft robot. The resulting device is known as LEAP, which stands for "Leveraging Elastic instabilities for Amplified Performance."
Instead of muscles and a biological spine, the silicone-bodied robot incorporates two soft pneumatic actuators and a flexible spring-loaded mechanical spine. Alternately pumping air in and out of the two actuators causes energy to be stored and suddenly released, triggering the spring to instantly flex the spine from one stable state to another. As a result, the bot is able to exert force against the ground, leaping off of it.
Utilizing this technique, LEAP is able to gallop at a rate of up to 2.7 body lengths per second across flat, solid surfaces.