Fastest electrically actuated quadruped robot

The fastest running speed for an electrically actuated quadruped robot was achieved in 2022 by a team led by Hongtao Wang and Wei Wang (both CHN) at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. In research published in Nature Machine Intelligence on 14 December 2022, the authors described a control algorithm based on imitation-relaxation reinforcement learning that allowed the robot to achieve running speeds of 5 m/s (18 km/h; 11.18 mph).

The term "electrically actuated" means that the robot uses electric motors to move its joints, rather than hydrualic or pneumatic systems. The distinction is significant because while hydrualic systems have been used to made extremely powerful and fast robots in the past, these systems require combustion engines to maintain pressure. The noise and smoke these create makes them impractical for the majority of possible use cases.