In addition to being durable, the Mini Cheetah is designed in such a way that makes it easy to repair and modify if necessary. MIT is hoping that this level of flexibility will make the robots appealing to researchers who wouldn't otherwise have access to robotics.

Fox News Flash top headlines for Nov. 11 are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently unveiled a new video of its Mini Cheetah robot, demonstrating that the four-legged android can now dribble a soccer ball, run and jump. In March, the Mini Cheetah robots were seen doing backflips. "Eventually, I'm hoping we could have a robotic dog race through an obstacle course, where each team controls a mini cheetah with different algorithms, and we can see which strategy is more effective," Sangbae Kim, Director of Biomimetic Robotics Lab at MIT, said at the time.

Researchers have pulled inspiration from nature to create an energy efficient robot. Using the same movements as a cheetah, the team has mimicked the animal's ability to store energy in its muscles by fitting the robot's legs with springs - and it only uses 15 percent more energy than the real thing. Its creators have suggested that this project will lead to more elegant and energy conscious machines, and could be used in creating rehabilitation robots or advanced prosthetics. Using the same movements as a cheetah, the team has mimicked the animal's ability to store energy in its muscles by fitting the robot's legs with springs - and it only uses 15 percent more energy than the real thing The University of Twente first learned about the real animal by watching videos and using software to analyze their movements. Currently, it can only move 0.6 miles per hour (1 km/h).

Big defense budgets during the aughts financed the deployment of thousands of robots, including unmanned aerial and underwater vehicles, to Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon's fascination with robots hasn't slackened even in these more austere times. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is funding Boston Dynamics' development of a prototype robot called the Cheetah. On March 5, the company announced that the cat-like bot managed to gallop 18 mph on a treadmill, setting a new land speed record for legged robots. Boston Dynamics, a 1992 spinoff from MIT that's headed by Marc Raibert, has also developed a quadrupedal pack robot called the Legged Squad Support System (LS3).