MIT’s Mini Cheetah Robot Can Do Backflips

Engineers at MIT have created a plethora of robots in recent years from machines that see with their feet to a cheetah automaton that can run through the grass. Now, MIT has developed a new version of the cheetah robot that’s smaller, more agile, and can even do a backflip. Plus, it can right itself if knocked over by a clumsy or malicious human. Creating a nigh-unstoppable robot seems like a mistake, but luckily the new cheetah is small and (currently) harmless.

The new mini cheetah is a scaled-down version of the Cheetah 3 that we previously saw prancing around the MIT campus. The four-legged robot weighs just 20 pounds and can run at 2.45 meters per second (5.48 miles per hour). It’s not the fastest quadruped robot in the world — the Cheetah 3 was about ten times faster, but the mini cheetah is shorter in stature and focuses on other things. Like doing a backflip.

You can see the mini cheetah putting its acrobatic skills to the test in the video below, launching itself in the air for a perfect backflip. That’s something the old Cheetah 3 could never hope to accomplish. It even remains standing when nudged and tripped with an almost Boston Dynamics-level of balance. The operative word being almost. The mini cheetah does topple over, but it has a subroutine that flips it right back over with a kick of the legs. See? Unstoppable.

While the robot’s current top speed is a little over 5 mph, the team believes it could move about twice as fast if they cranked the motors up to maximum. It’s a little early for that, though. Right now, everyone is focused on improving the robot’s finesse, and backflips are only the start. Mini cheetah can also dance in circles and bound across smooth surfaces. In the future, they want the mini cheetah to be able to land on its feet if you give it a toss. MIT is building ten more mini cheetah robots, which it will loan out to other teams that want to collaborate on research.

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