biped

The fastest any human has ever run on record was Usain Bolt. He was clocked at a ridiculously quick 27.79 mph (44.72 km/h) when he ran a 9.58-second 100-meter dash. Two-legged robots can run even faster, and it looks really weird.

You might think that having four legs with wheels on the ends would already make a robot pretty useful. China's LimX Dynamics is taking things further, however, as its W1 quadruped robot is now able to stand up and walk on two "feet."

Somebody better break it to the Ewoks: crafty log tricks aren't gonna cut the mustard. LimX Dynamics has released video of its P1 Biped – heavily inspired by the AT-ST walker from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, taking an absolute pounding with ease.

After setting a new world speed record for humanoid robots earlier this month, China's Unitree is now claiming another. Its latest H1 bipedal takes the title for first to perform a standing backflip without the use of hydraulics.

China's Unitree Robotics is claiming a new world speed record for its H1 humanoid robot. In a just-released video, the bipedal bot is pictured hustling along at a claimed 3.3 meters per second (11.9 km/h or 7.4 mph) … and the fun doesn't stop there.

When we last heard from LimX Dynamics, the Chinese robotics firm was showing off a quadruped robot that could walk on legs or roll on wheels. The company has now released a video of its new humanoid robot, which can autonomously climb stairs.

What stands 178 cm tall (5 ft, 10 in), weighs 85 kg (187 lb) and has five-fingered hands with 12 degrees of freedom? That's right, it's the Kepler Forerunner humanoid robot, and it's set to debut next week at CES.

It was just this week that we told you about Unitree's latest quadruped robot, the B2. Well, the Chinese company has also announced its first-ever humanoid bipedal robot, the Unitree H1.

Walking bipedal robots excel at tasks such as traversing uneven terrain, but because they're so mechanically complex, they can't be made very small. That could soon change, however, thanks to the development of the Mugatu robot.

Last August, Elon Musk announced that Tesla was working on a bipedal humanoid robot that could perform boring and/or dangerous tasks for humans. His company has now unveiled two prototypes, one of which can already walk on its own.

A machine named Cassie has set a Guinness World Record for the 100-meter dash by a bipedal robot, and while it’s far from the blistering pace of the world’s best athletes, it is an impressive demonstration of robotics and engineering.

We first heard about the iCub humanoid robot in 2011, when it was nominated to take part in the Olympic Torch Relay. The latest and greatest version, the iCub 3, was the star of a recently-announced (and pretty impressive) telepresence demonstration.