Researchers build the world's fastest 'soft' robot, THREE TIMES faster than the last record holder

Engineers at North Carolina State University have achieved a new record for the fastest moving soft robot. A team from the university's Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department created a robot capable of moving 2.7 times its own body length each second, more than three times faster than the previous record of 0.8 times body length per second. The tiny robot--it weighs just 1.5 ounces and measures 2.7 inches long--was designed to run like a cheetah, with four bent legs and a long flexible torso made from silicone. A team of engineers at North Carolina State University developed a small'soft' robot modeled after a cheetah, which uses silicone bands to expand and contract in a galloping motion that mimics a cheetah's movement'We were inspired by the cheetah to create a type of soft robot that has a spring-powered, "bistable" spine, meaning that the robot has two stable states,' North Carolina State's Jie Yin told Eurekalert. 'We can switch between these stable states rapidly by pumping air into channels that line the soft, silicone robot.