We think robot enthusiast Dr. GIY from Japan may have a world-class robot sprinter on his hands with his modified Kyosho MANOI AT01. The robot is slated to compete in the 5 meter dash at the Kyosho Athlete Humanoid Cup and, timed at 10 seconds for the run, it's definitely one fast bipedal 'bot. Dr. GIY's MANOI AT01 maintains amazing balance, stops without tipping and can even correct its course on the fly.

So what would it take for Dr. GIY's sprinter to compete for the world sprinting record? The spot is currently held by Scuttle, built by Mike Franklin of the United Kingdom's Team 101, and it ran 25 meter in 6.5 seconds. Scuttle's secret? It's got more legs than two.

Either the Guinness Book of World Records needs a humanoid sprinter accolade, or Dr. GIY needs to pull off the impossible and juice that kind of speed out of his MANOI AT01. Still, Dr. GIY's robot gives us hope with how stable it is, considering humanoid robot builders face a far steeper challenge when conforming their 'bots to a task, rather than designing the robot's body around a task.

Via Robots-Dreams