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HOUND, the robo-dog, races into history books with 100-m sprint record
The robo-dog named HOUND can also successfully climb a 22° slope, walk 3.2 km, and move over a 35-cm-high obstacle.
A robo-dog achieved a Guinness World Record title by running the fastest 100 meters on all four legs. Developed by the Dynamic Robot Control and Design Laboratory at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon, South Korea, HOUND completed the distance in just 19.87 seconds.
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According to Guinness World Records (GWR), HOUND began from a stationary position and stopped after crossing the finishing line. Young-Ha Shin, the robot designer, told GWR, “All of these movements were achieved with a single [motor] controller trained in the simulation through reinforcement learning.”
He added, “In simulation, it can accelerate to even higher speeds, but we haven’t tested it in the real world yet.”
The record-keeping organisation further mentioned that the robo-dog weighs 45 kg, similar to an average adult male American bulldog. Although it was designed for high-speed running, it can successfully climb a 22° slope, walk 3.2 km, and move over a 35-cm-high obstacle.
GWR also shared a video of the HOUND sprinting on a running track with the caption, “New record: Fastest 100 metres by a quadrupedal robot - 19.87 seconds by KAIST Dynamic Robot Control and Design (DRCD) Laboratory in South Korea. The robot’s name is ‘HOUND’.”
The video shows a man operating HOUND and sprinting behind him on the running track.
Watch the video here:
The video was shared on December 12 on Instagram. It has since accumulated over 4.2 lakh views, and the numbers are still increasing. The share has also received a few comments. An individual wrote, “That’s really cool,” while another posted, “Wow! Super.” “Very nice,” shared a third.
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