Posted on 02/28/2017 7:23:43 AM PST by RoosterRedux
Google-owned robotics firm and nightmare factory Boston Dynamics has released video of its latest creation: a two-wheeled, four-legged hybrid robot named Handle.
The robot can stand on four legs, like Boston Dynamics previous creations such as BigDog and Spot. But at the end of its back two legs are two stabilised wheels, which let it stand up vertically and roll around at speeds of up to nine miles per hour. Think Terminator riding on a hoverboard and youll have a pretty good idea of the impression Handle gives off.
Boston Dynamics says the reason for the hybrid design is the simplicity it affords: rather than needing the complex joints of the fully-quadrupedal bots, Handles wheels can speed it around with little difficulty, while its front legs can be used for balance and for carrying loads of up to 50kg.
Handle uses many of the same dynamics, balance and mobile manipulation principles found in the quadruped and biped robots we build, Boston Dynamics said, but with only about 10 actuated joints, it is significantly less complex. Wheels are efficient on flat surfaces while legs can go almost anywhere: by combining wheels and legs, Handle can have the best of both worlds. The video does not, however, show Handle walking rather that scooting around on its wheels.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
I’m going to check to see if I have enough to get some more yogurt and rice pudding, and then after my shower, I’ll go to Wally’s.
My mother didn’t like to eat. She said it was a waste of time because just a few hours after you have breakfast you have to eat again, and then again a few hours later, just to repeat it the next day. Yah...like that.
Amazingly, I slept six hours, then slept another two. The dreams were really strange, so I’m glad I don’t remember them.
My neck hurts this morning, and I don’t know why. When I shower, I’ll let it soak under the stream to see if that helps.
I noticed that. But I’m partial to ginger cats, anyway. They aren’t as common as other colors.
Chuck Barris passed away — 87.
My neck doesn’t hurt, but it’s stiff. Pat’s going to do math now, so I guess I’ll run the vacuum after I help Kathleen get dressed.
We had rain last night, and it’s damp and chilly this morning.
I put some of that blue leg stuff on my neck, but I think it will just take some periodic movement and adding the blue stuff as I go along today.
Off to Wally’s where I think I have enough gelt to get enough yogurt and pudding to last for the duration. I hope.
The gravity appears to be especially aggressive this morning.
As usual, on my day off it has decide to deliver a few million gallons of the wet stuff.
So somehow I’ve ended up at the car museum again.
Dinner is served. :)
Car museums is good.
Our German guest went to the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art yesterday. He said it was nice. I guess he was comparing it to the Louvre?
Perhaps Fine art isn’t his thing.
Perhaps a Museum full of scientific instruments or inventions would be more to His taste?
A natural history museum, or something.
There is the other possibility....the multiple definitions of ‘nice’ are not known to him and he actually did enjoy it. :)
Mind your atomic bonds!
Tom and Elen have left for school, reducing our localized entropy levels to Bearable. I wrote a bunch of checks and put them out in the mail, with appropriate postage. I’m almost out of Postage; maybe I’ll go by the Post Orfice later, when I go to Walmart to get some ingredients for ground-beef casserole.
He said he enjoyed it. He barely got off the first floor so I think he likes art.
I’m going with the language thing.
I think that any description other than “very nice” tends toward overkill.
I buy my stamps at Walmart, since I don’t want to go to the post orifice. It’s a lot easier.
I made a key lime bundt cake this morning, but need a bigger bundt pan, as the batter rose up over the edge. The last time I was at the thrift store, they had a large supply of junk pans. No bundt. When it cools I will frost it. Walmart had the mixes on sale this morning and I had just barely enough to get that with the necessities.
My patio is full of little green seeds that look like dimes. First it was mulberry worms and now its green dimes. *sigh* I would sweep it, but the wind is up again.
If I had any hamburger, I’d make spaghetti, if I had some pasta sauce...
You may have to post some photos of the cars you find at the museum. I wish I could see them in person... :o|
I need to make a cake for the homeless mission on Friday. I have lemon cake mix, and I bought some pink and silver sprinkles for it, because why shouldn’t the homeless have sprinkles?
I’m going to try, again, to enter Cub Scout Day Camp information. There’s been a glitch with my log-in information, but the director is sure it’s fixed this time.
Is it Russian?
If they get sprinkles, what's the incentive to get their lives in order and get homes???
The daycamp registration login was fixed this time. Whoo-hoo!
Cats are inscrutable creatures.
Charlie enjoyed the Bundt cake so much he gave me a DVD of Benny Hill!!! WOOT!
In other news, the State of Nevada has deemed me ineligible for SNAP benefits. I just filled out a form and mailed it in, and today I get a form saying my SNAP benefits will cease April 30 if they don’t get a application by April 14.
The SNAP form used to be part of the Medicare premium form. I guess it isn’t any more. So tomorrow, I’ll go to the office to see the Senior Rep and get a SNAP form from her. It will be easier than hiking down to the Welfare office, for sure. I hate that place.
Mine?
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