MIT Biomimetic Robotics Lab · robot dog
MIT Cheetah 2
An electric research quadruped from Sangbae Kim's lab that bounded untethered outdoors and used a laser to plan jumps over hurdles up to about 40 cm.
- Price
- —Not published
- Height
- —Not published
- Weight
- —Not published
- Payload
- —Not published
- Speed
- —Not published
- Battery
- —Not published
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Why it matters
One of the first electric quadrupeds to run untethered outdoors; in 2015 it jumped hurdles on its own while running.
Real-world use
No customers or deployments reported yet.
Maker
MIT Biomimetic Robotics LabUniversity lab · Cambridge, Massachusetts, United StatesDARPA-funded Cheetah work
Public attention
A historic robot: no longer sold or in use, so it is not ranked against current machines.
- No Wikipedia article of its own yet
- 2 news stories from reputable press listed on this page
Measures how much people read and write about a robot, not how good it is. Measured 2026-10-13; same method for every robot. How it is measured
What’s inside
The parts the company has talked about publicly.
- Movement
- Walks on legs
- How it runs
- Fully autonomous. In its best-known demonstration it spotted hurdles with lidar and planned and made the jumps by itself; it was also steered by researchers in other runs.
- Actuators & motors
- Custom high-torque-density electric motors (designed by Jeffrey Lang) with amplifiers by David Otten; force on the ground is controlled without foot force sensors
- Sensors & vision
- Onboard lidar maps obstacles for the jumping algorithm (2015)
- Battery & power
- Battery powered and untethered; capacity not published
- AI & software
- Bounding gait algorithm; three-part lidar-based obstacle detection and jump planning
- Other details
- Ran up to about 10 mph indoors; cleared obstacles up to 18 inches while running; DARPA funded
Lineage
Every MIT Biomimetic Robotics Lab machine in order.
Watch MIT Cheetah 2
Made, sold and where
Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.
- Price
- Not published
- How to get one
- No official buying page found
- Built
- Research robot
- Sold or delivered
- not sold
- Where it is sold or used
- MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
News
The latest 2, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.
- Cheetah robot jumps hurdles on the run
MIT showed Cheetah 2 using lidar to spot and leap obstacles up to 18 inches tall while running untethered.
MIT News - MIT cheetah runs and jumps untethered
MIT unveiled a battery-powered cheetah robot that bounded at up to 10 mph using a new bounding algorithm.
MIT News
Side by side with its peers
Picked by the same rules for every robot: another maker’s robot that moves the same way, is at the same stage and does at least one of the same main jobs, first shown within two years. Closer size and price rank higher. How we choose
| Measure | MIT Cheetah 2MIT Biomimetic Robotics Lab |  HyQ2MaxIstituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT)Same job: research · Both walk · Both past robots |  WildCatBoston DynamicsSame job: research · Both walk · Both past robots |  LaikagoUnitree RoboticsSame job: research · Both walk · Both past robots |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First shown | 2014-09-15 | 2015 | 2013-10-03 | 2017-09 |
| Status | Retired | Retired | Retired | Discontinued |
| Height | — | 92 cm | — | 60 cm |
| Weight | — | 80 kg | — | 22 kg |
| Joints | — | 12 | — | 12 |
| Speed | — | 5.4 km/h | 25.7 km/h | 5 km/h |
| Payload | — | — | — | 9 kg |
| Battery | — | — | — | 3 h |
| Price | — | — | — | $45,000 |
Sources
Figures come from press coverage. Every link below backs something on this page.
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