A Hangzhou-based team is claiming its Black Panther V2.0 robot dog is now sprinting as fast as 10.4 meters per second. That's more than 23 mph (37 km/h), and with a 100-meter sprint time under 10 seconds, the Panther can now run with elite human athletes.
To get there, the researchers – a collaborative team between Zhejiang University and a startup called Mirror Me – had to replace the robot's legs, which kept snapping at the shins. So they built it a sprung lower-leg shock absorbing system, with grippy rubber feet, to allow them to crank the motor power up.
The 38-kg (84-lb) Black Panther 2.0 now takes up to five strides per second, and if the embedded video below is legit, it looks ridiculously quick.
Robotic Dog Runs 100m in UNDER 10 SECONDS! (Black Panther 2.0)
It's still a long way from being the apex quadruped – cheetahs have been clocked running around three times faster at 104 km/h (65 mph). But the Black Panther achieves its top speed in what's essentially a power-walking motion, as opposed to the stretched-out galloping gait you'd typically see fast land animals using at speed. You can bet that's coming soon.
AI-powered robotics isn't advancing quite as quickly as language and reasoning AI models are, but this area is absolutely exploding with new companies looking to get intelligent robots out into the workforce in all sorts of capacities.
They're not a ton of use right now, but they're mastering the basics: grabbing various different item shapes, lifting, carrying and moving things, opening doors, beginning to use tools – and learning to navigate through spaces built for humans.
It's hard to watch the progress in this field accelerating and not be reminded of various Black Mirror episodes – but with birth rates continuing to decline in most wealthy countries, robotic labor might be the only way to keep economies growing in the coming decades. And the technology is clearly coming of age.
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