Posted on 03/18/2008 9:47:35 AM PDT by BGHater
A new video of the Army's BigDog 'bot highlights its eery abilities
Two years ago we showed you Boston Dynamics' incredible BigDog—one of the world's most ambitious legged robots—being developed for DARPA and the U.S. Army. With its advanced system of hyper-responsive hydraulic joints and a suite of sensors, accelerometers and gyroscopes, the BigDog's most stunning achievement is it's ability to walk, climb and maintain its balance on diverse terrain, even after slipping on ice or receiving a kick to one side. All while carrying several hundreds of pounds of supplies on its "back."
In this new video, we see the latest BigDog iteration taking a stroll through the woods, stomping through ice and snow, showing off a new gallop, and in one of the more amazing things you'll see today, regaining its balance autonomously after slipping on a patch of ice. The amount of real-time computation involved in something like this is staggering, and if the YouTube comments are anything to say about it ("Shoot it. SHOOT IT!"), we humans may not be quite ready to accept such lifelike behavior coming from a machine.
If and when it enters service, BigDog could support troops on the battlefield by carrying heavy cargo or evacuating the wounded. But for now, it's sticking to making online video fans' jaws drop.
Is there any way to save these things and play later?
save the link and go back later?
Oh. My. Gosh.
MM
I live in Missouri. During hunting season this thing would be in the back of somebody’s pick-up truck going to the check station before you can say “Gol durn, what the hell is dat twang!”
Good thing these folks are in Boston.
I meant a file you can play later. I have a dial up and it gets to 3:29 and screws up.
I suspect that when the Predator options are installed, your good old boys are going to be changing their Depends, if they are still alive.
bump for later
Yeah, they will put eyes in it before long. Stars wars for real.
We did not have to wait 200 years for our flip open star trek style communicators (cell phones).
We now have PDA’s which track Padds.
This morning they were reporting on airborne lasers.
We have more scientists alive today than ALL of past history. Cool times ahead if we regulate ourselves to oblivion.
Thanks for the post.
As for the muffler comments, just remember - in the past the sound of a pair of Allison V-1710-49/53 engines - 1,325 HP each meant Death was looking for you. (P-38)
To quote someone who would know
“Jiro Horikoshi, who headed the design team that build the Zero, wrote: “The peculiar sound of the P-38’s twin engines became both familiar and hated by the Japanese all across the South Pacific.”
I rest my case....
I imagine that noise meant a hunter-killer bot was out looking for you...
What was the name of that movie - somehting about time travel and robots....
Nah keep it. When the enemy hear the sound of fifty of them coming knowing they have thermal guided missiles....screaming Mimie ain't got nothin on that.
We live in a time with wonders more incredible than you can possibly imagine... and terrors to freeze your soul.
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