In 2013, the world's fastest quadruped robot was WildCat, an untethered, four-legged machine developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA. Powered by a two-stroke petrol engine, WildCat could run at a top speed of 25 km/h (about 15.5 mph) using a galloping gait. The robot was an outdoor version of Boston Dynamics' earlier Cheetah robot, which had set a treadmill speed record of 28.3 mph in 2012. While developed for potential military applications, WildCat served as a crucial development