This robot developed by Boston Dynamics is simply amazing - apparently, the most advanced quadruped robot on earth. Boston Dynamics, the brains behind the machine, is a an engineering company that specializes in robotics and human simulation with primarily military applications.
Boston Dynamics’ site describes the machine:
It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog’s legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight.
BigDog has an on-board computer that controls locomotion, servos the legs and handles a wide variety of sensors. BigDog’s control system manages the dynamics of its behavior to keep it balanced, steer, navigate, and regulate energetics as conditions vary. Sensors for locomotion include joint position, joint force, ground contact, ground load, a laser gyroscope, and a stereo vision system. Other sensors focus on the internal state of BigDog, monitoring the hydraulic pressure, oil temperature, engine temperature, rpm, battery charge and others.
In separate trials, BigDog runs at 4 mph, climbs slopes up to 35 degrees, walks across rubble, and carries a 340 lb load.
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That’s so hilarious! It was my exact reaction too…something very unsettling about this creation. Is life with REAL robots REALLY going to be cool as we imagined as kids? Hmm, maybe not like we imagined.
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:28 am
Scared the shiznit out of me and I’m 6″2 220 pounds…Someone call Will Smith to destroy this!
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Wow, I had no idea we’d come so far in so short a time, only a couple years ago the jap robot that can break dance and walk stairs was a breakthrough, this guy makes him look like a tinker toy. The positively amazing part is that he is at least partially independent, he can apparently do more when he’s hooked up to the mainframe but what they have him doing outdoors with just onboard systems IS POSITIVELY AMAZING gives me hope that all humans aren’t the dense idiots I deal with most of the time. The advances I’ve seen just in my lifetime are something but this will be another one of those things like the integrated circuit that changes the world. LOL Runaway not too far away now (the movie).
July 20th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Making a construct move like a human can is one thing, giving it “free thought” and decision making abilities is quite another so while we’ve got the robot’s body well on the way with this tech, star trek’s Mr. Data is still a looong way away unless someone drops in from out of town and gives us a few hints and takes our tech level up a few notches. This tech will probably primarily end up in the construction industry or perhaps in law enforcement where they are dealing with dangerous situations (i.e. bombs etc.) or I can also see applications in rescue, underwater searches of sunken ships, nuclear power plants, cargo hauling/moving, recreation (i.e. people movers with no wheels that don’t tear up the forests….i.e. star wars walker types of vehicles, how about the hiker that wants to tug a load of tents and food along but doesn’t want to carry it. Can you see this tech coupled with vtol tech, it lands where it needs to be then the legs pop out and it walks around the rest of the time. Wow fantastic, of course the next challenge will be durability and reliability, I just hope they don’t let Bill Gates buy up the operating system for this too. Please don’t run this thing on windows we want it to work right.
July 20th, 2008 at 11:40 am