Video: The DARPA Cheetah Is The RoboDog Of Our Future Death

What the fuck are we doing here? We’re engineering our own destruction. DARPA is pretty good at building death machines with my tax money, and their latest is goddamn terrifying. The DARPA Cheetah, a dog-looking robot that can run 18 mph. Don’t even both running when the RoboPocalypse hits.

Hit the jump to see your doom in motion.

Gizmodo:

We love DARPA’s unsettlingly-lifelike BigDog bot. We love it in spite of the fact that it’s absolutely terrifying in motion. Now it has some bestial competition: the DARPA Cheetah. Ugh. Its legs. Its legs are so frightening.

Above, the Cheetah sets a speed record for four-legged robots, at 18 MPH. Herculean Olympian speed impossibility Usain Bolt can sprint at around 23 MPH. And he’s a mutant of physical capability.

In other words, this thing can and will chase you down:

The robot’s movements are designed to mimic those of fast-running animals in nature. The robot increases its stride and running speed by flexing and un-flexing its back on each step, much as an actual cheetah does.

The current version of the Cheetah robot runs on a laboratory treadmill where it is powered by an off-board hydraulic pump, and uses a boom-like device to keep it running in the center of the treadmill. Testing of a free-running prototype is planned for later this year.