A robot capable of running on its own at 20 miles-per-hour has hit Kickstarter.
The 'OutRunner' is aiming to succeed where even Google's recent acquisition Boston Dynamics has only partially triumphed.
Designed by Robotics Unlimited, the fresh new design takes the form of a rimless spoked wheel, which rolls forward placing at least one of its six legs on the ground at any one time.
The running drone is self-balancing, has a two hour battery life and can be steered around complex terrain.
The team behind it said:
"Robotics Unlimited is a spinoff of the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) where a team of scientists and engineers have been working for years toward the development of walking and running robots.
Part of the IHMC robotics team has been spending their time figuring out how to make a robotic system capable of running while maintaining stability.
While research robots are very expensive machines dedicated to lab experiments, Robotics Unlimited's founder wanted to have a robot easy to operate, relatively low cost to build but still providing amazing running capability. After several months of thinking, testing and prototyping, OutRunner was born."
The team is now looking for $150,000 funding on Kickstarter, with a variety of rewards offered to backers. The team says the money will help them to finish the design and move towards a commercial product.