Shorts-Wearing Japanese Sprinter-Bot Runs Like a Human on Robotic Legs
From: Popular Science - 12/13/2010
By: Clay Dillow

Japanese researcher Ryuma Niiyama’s robot is quite literally making strides
in the field of robotics. His running robot, named Athlete, can only make
three to five steps before falling down, but the bipedal robot’s gait is
remarkably un-robotic, stemming from a musculoskeletal design that mimics
human biology. With some further refinement, Niiyama may just create a robot
sprinter that moves with agility and explosive speed of a human runner. 

Read the entire article and view the video at:
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-12/athlete-runs-human-robotic-legs

Links:
Athlete Robot Learning to Run Like Human
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/athlete-robot-learning-to-run-like-human

Ryuma Niiyama
http://www.isi.imi.i.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~niiyama/