Why Animals Run Faster than Robots
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More than a decade ago a skinny-legged knee-less robot named Ranger completed an ultramarathon on foot. Donning a fetching red baseball cap with “Cornell” stitched on the front, and striding along at a leisurely pace, Ranger walked 40.5 miles, or 65 kilometers, on a single battery charge.
Ranger broke a record that day, walking farther than any robot before it—and that record remains unbeaten among robots. But Ranger’s pace was surprisingly pokey: It took 30 hours and 49 minutes to cover the distance, equivalent to a mile every 45 minutes. By comparison, the average human a mile every 10 to 12 minutes.
