Video: MIT’s robotic cheetah let off the lead.

Until now, videos of this thing have shown is tethered to a frame and running on a treadmill, but here it’s shown running across a field with no problems.

The robot can currently run up to 10mph and jump one foot in the air.

Kim says what makes the robot so dynamic is a custom-designed, high-torque-density electric motor, designed by Jeffrey Lang, the Vitesse Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT. These motors are controlled by amplifiers designed by David Otten, a principal research engineer in MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics. The combination of such special electric motors and custom-designed, bio-inspired legs allow force control on the ground without relying on delicate force sensors on the feet.