Watch 'Cheetah Cub' Robot Speedster Run Like a Cat (Video)

We've seen the robot that walks like a lizard, now meet the one that walks like a cat. Scientists have developed a four-legged "cheetah cub robot" that is small, light and fast. The new machine could serve as a platform for research in both locomotion and biomechanics.

The headless robot is definitely modeled after a cat--and you can see it. With four legs that are shaped roughly like a cat's legs and a small "torso," this machine is the fastest in its category. In fact, it was able to run nearly seven times its body length in just one second. Despite not being as agile as a real feline, the robot can still demonstrate excellent stability when running at full speed or over a course that includes disturbances--such as small steps.

So what really makes this robot the speedster that is is? It's all in the legs. The machine's newly designed legs are actually based on meticulous observations and the faithful reproduction of cat legs. With three segments in each leg that are proportioned the same as they are on a feline, the robot employs biomimicry--the process of taking inspiration from nature.

"This morphology gives the robot the mechanical properties from which cats benefit, that's to say a marked running ability and elasticity in the right spots, to ensure stability," said Alexander Sprowitz, one of the scientists, in a news release. "The robot is thus naturally more autonomous."

It's not just the size of the legs that are the same, though. The scientists also used springs to reproduce tendons and actuators, small motors that convert energy into movement, to reproduce muscles. The end result is a machine that can teach scientists quite a bit about locomotion.

"It's still in the experimental stages, but the long-term goal of the cheetah-cub robot is to be able to develop fast, agile, ground-hugging machines for use in exploration, for example for search and rescue in natural disaster situations," said Auke Ijspeert, the director of Biorob, in a news release. "Studying and using the principles of the animal kingdom to develop new solutions for use in robots is the essence of our research."

Want to see the robot in motion? You can check it out here, courtesy of YouTube.