Robot That Runs Like A Cat: "Cheetah Cub" Catbot Springs To Life, May Save Lives [VIDEO]

A robot that runs like a cat has been created in Switzerland. Watch a video of it below. The "catbot", dubbed a "cheetah-cub robot" because it is the size of a cheetah cub, may be the future of search-and-rescue operations and save lives.

 Researchers announced Monday that they have created the small four-legged, high-speed robot that runs like a cat. It can move much faster than any other robots in its category-about as fast as an adult human walking briskly. It's part of an effort to create a new kind of robot to use for search and rescue or exploration operations.

The "cheetah cub" and has a tail but no head. Still, it's easily identifiable as modeled on a cat due to its gait and the way it moves. Thus, just like a cat, it's small, light, and fast.

The robot can move seven times its boy length in one second, or about 4.5 feet. That works out to be a little over three miles an hour.

"This is a good walking speed for an adult human," one of the researchers on the project, Alexander Sprowitz, told press.

The catbot is about 20 inches long but only weighs about 2 and a half pounds. It's made of relatively inexpensive materials, which may make it easy to duplicate for mass manufacture in the future.

"Its particularity is the design of its legs, which make it very fast and stable," Sporowitz said.

The "cheetah cub" robot wasn't as agile as a real cat, but it "still has excellent auto-stabilization characteristics when running at full speed or over a course that included disturbances such as small steps."

Researchers replicated feline design in the robot that runs like a cat by using springs to replace tendons and autocators, small motors that convert energy to movement, to stand in for muscles. The Swiss research group followed cat proportions meticulously.

While the technology is still in development, researchers eventually hope to "develop fast, agile, ground-hugging machines for use in exploration, for example for search and rescue in natural disaster situations."

Sporowitz added that the technology may also provide "insights into the control architecture of animals" and a "strong impact on human locomotion rehabilitation."

Watch a VIDEO of the robot that runs like a cat below: