Robotics, especially humanoid, walking and speed robots has been advancing at a rapid pace in the last few years. For instance, the Boston Dynamics robot Cheetah recently broke the tethered robot land speed record, with around 16 miles per hour. This amazing robot even attracted Google’s attention, and keeping with the trend, Google went and quickly acquired the robotics company. Another example of a robot making headlines is Honda’s Asimo robot, claiming to be the most advanced humanoid robot ever. All these robots display new and innovative ideas, and these ideas, if executed correctly, is what makes robotics interesting and exciting.

Kickstarter has always been a harbor for innovative and new ideas, launching great companies such as Pebble, it is only logical that once in a while these to media would combine. And they did in OutRunner.

OutRunner is a completely new design of running robot, hoping to be the fastest in the world. The design consists of a center block, which contains all the mechanical and computing electronics. Branching out from that on both sides are 3 legs, all facing upward(and downwards) like a windmill. These legs alternate at a rapid rate while running, propelling the lightweight machine forward. The OutRunner team based this design off of a hum running, so that the alternate legs propel the robot at the correct time.

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Currently, OutRunner has made 43,000 out of their needed and pledged 150,000. They really should have a problem though, because of the significance of the robot. Just during testing, not even with the finalized robot, the OutRunner beat both untethered and treadmill running robot land speed records, with  25 mph untethered and 45 mph on a treadmill. For $299, you will receive a OutRunner Core, the basic OutRunner unit. This version, unlike the older iterations, has three legs on each side, and can be easily controlled using a simple controller. In another video on their Kickstarter page, they show that it can navigate slight variations in terrains, such as gravel, slow inclines and rough grass and dirt.

This robot certainly shows something about the future of robotics: there is still things to reinvent and innovate, and there most likely will always be. After all, records are meant to be broken, and with so many creative people striving to break them, it is inevitable that sooner or later, they will be broken. This robot is a great example of that, and also how amazing products and ideas still need to be funded. Everything does. Props to the OutRunner team to making such as new a creative robot, and hopefully they will get all the funding they need.