Running robots of future may learn from world’s best two-legged runners: birds

Based on a press release from Oregon State Edu.

Researchers found that the most efficient two-legged runners ever run on earth are running birds.

Running birds are found to have an impressive ability to run while minimizing energy cost, avoiding falls or injury, and maintaining speed and direction.

“Birds appear to be the best of bipedal terrestrial runners, with a speed and agility that may trace back 230 million years to their dinosaur ancestors,” said Jonathan Hurst, an associate professor and robotics expert in the OSU College of Engineering.

In collaboration with Monica Daley at the Royal Veterinary College in London, the researchers studied five species of birds and developed a computer model in OSU’s Dynamic Robotics Laboratory that closely matches that behavior.

Comments