[MUSIC]
Student: My question is how fast
is the fastest robot?
Tom McCarthy: Well, it turns out
there is actually some pretty
fast robots out there.
There's actually a running
robot, a cheetah, a robot that's
faster than Usain Bolts.
So, over 28 miles an hour.
Student: My question is why are
moon rovers and mars rovers so
slow?
McCarthy: So the reason why the
Moon and Mars rovers is so slow
is because they have to carry
all of their energy on board
through batteries, or they have
to convert, uh, electrical power
from the sun in some cases and
store it.
And they go slow to conserve
that energy.
They don't, if they go really
fast they'll burn up all their
energy quickly, and then it
takes a long time for them to
charge.
So they meter out their
performance over a long period
of time.
Joan Cartan-Hansen: For more
information about robotics,
check out the science trek
website.
You'll find it at science trek
dot org