Boston Dynamics create PETMAN human-like walking robot (PETMAN - BigDog gets a Big Brother)

Geek.com ^ | 2009 Oct 27 | Matthew Humphries

[Wiz]

Boston Dynamics is well known for its robot creations, but its latest effort shows how close we are getting to human-like machines.

You may remember the dog-like robot called BigDog the company created back in 2007. It was capable of navigating rough terrain and could walk, run, climb, and carry heavy loads with its four legs. BD has built upon the BigDog technology and has now created a two-legged robot called PETMAN which you can see in the video above.

PETMAN has been developed for use by the US Army to help test chemical protection clothing. It performs realistic human-like heel-toe walking at up to 3.2mph and is capable of being pushed without falling over. It can also crawl and do a range of other movements soldiers may perform so as to ensure testing covers the full range of scenarios for the suits.

[Wiz]

Could this be what it may look like for war in the future, with Bigdog and armoured PetMan?

Reference
Boston Dynamics official site

Video
Petman Prototype

[Nervous Tick]

It performs realistic human-like heel-toe walking at up to 3.2mph and is capable of being pushed without falling over.

Heck, this thing walks better than I do! Can it chew gum?

[Wiz]

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