A dog-like robot called "HOUND" has been developed by South Korean engineers at the Dynamic Robot Control and Design Laboratory, which is part of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon. HOUND ran 328 feet in just 19.87 seconds, making it the fastest four-legged robot in the world. This feat was officially acknowledged by Guinness World Records, which awarded HOUND the record for the quickest 100 meters by a quadrupedal robot.
According to Guinness World Records, starting from a stationary position, the robot completed its sprint and came to a standstill after crossing the finishing line.
"All of these movements were achieved with a single [motor] controller trained in the simulation through reinforcement learning," said Young-Ha Shin, HOUND's designer.
"In order to push the limits of the actuator, motor characteristics were incorporated into the simulation to make the environment as close to the real world as possible. In simulation, it can accelerate to even higher speeds, but we haven't tested it in the real world yet," he added.
According to GWR, HOUND is fitted with lightweight feet specialized for sprinting. It weighs 45 kg (99 lb), which is similar to an average adult male American bulldog.
It was designed to have a comprehensive range of motion, achieved by giving the hip and knee actuator modules a parallel configuration, along with a belt-pulley system to transmit the knee actuation to the knee joint.
"Instantaneous and steady performance are important characteristics when deciding on a motor for dynamic legged locomotion," Young-Ha Shin elaborated on the meticulous thought process involved in selecting HOUND's motor.
