A four-legged robot built by Chinese researchers just walked 83 miles on a single battery charge, more than doubling the previous record for longest distance covered by a quadruped robot. Xingzhe (or "Walker") No. 1 resembles the design of the Cornell-built Ranger robot that traveled 41 miles for the record in 2011: two pairs of legs that swing past each other in turns, shifting the weight of the robot forward and producing a highly efficient gait. This type of robot, however, can only navigate flat terrain: It traveled its entire 83 miles over 1,405 laps of an indoor track on a gym floor. It cannot intelligently maneuver around obstacles, like the robots in this year's Robotics Challenge(though to be fair, those had trouble getting around too). And for stability, a frame like BigDog or Spot's is probably a better bet. But all those robots have much to learn from Xingzhe No. 1 when it comes to longevity and energy efficiency.

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• Country: China 
• Company: Posts and Telecommunications University