A walking robot named MABEL born at the University of Michigan is causing a stir in the YouTube world.

A U-M engineering team led by professor Jessy Grizzle posted a video of the robot's first steps over wooden planks May 23. Just over a week later, it's been viewed more than 125,000 times.

MABEL, otherwise known as a bipedal robot, features motors in her torso, tendon-like springs and light legs. Grizzle said bipedal robots could eventually be capable of performing rescue operations in the 70 percent of Earth's land surface where wheeled or tracked vehicles can't navigate.

MABEL takes a spill on camera when trying to step over a stack of planks 2.5 inches tall and breaks her leg - but Grizzle said the leg took just an hour to fix. He hopes to have the robot jogging by winter.

The research funded by the National Science Foundation will be presented at MIT's Dynamic Walking 2010 conference on July 8 in Boston.

Read more about MABEL and her predecessor RABBIT here, and watch the video below.