New video of BigDog

[DisgruntledGoat]

http://gizmodo.com/368651/new-video-...ing-its-spooky

Very crazy video of Boston Dynamics quadruped robot. Its absolutely stunning especially if you have seen other "walking" robots before. Cause this guy puts them all to shame.

[LSJ]

I remember that robot's development - it is greatly improved from before, and kind of creepy.... plus it makes a buzzing sound...

[DisgruntledGoat]

I remember that robot's development - it is greatly improved from before, and kind of creepy.... plus it makes a buzzing sound...

The buzzing sound is a V6 engine. They want to remove that and power it with batteries (according one of the developers in the comments) but currently battery tech isn't good enough.

It is eerie when you see it regain its balance on the ice and when its kicked.

[Simetrical]

You can embed the video directly in the thread, you know:



My impression: promotional video, be wary. You don't know how many pathetic mishaps were edited out. Probably it's progress over the status quo if it can ever operate as depicted, even if not yet consistently, so it's somewhat impressive regardless.

[CtrlAltDe1337]

Quite amazing...

[the_mango55]

I saw it not long ago somewhere else, it's very impressive.

It definitely will have it's uses in the future, especially if they can improve speed and stability.

An interesting possibility I see for it would be carrying wounded people out of an area where now a helicopter would be needed.

[Simetrical]

Carrying supplies, more likely, and healthy troops. It looks a little bumpy for a wounded soldier, plus it's way too slow: you need to get casualties to a hospital ASAP. Helicopters would still be a much better choice for medevac.

[the_mango55]

Carrying supplies, more likely, and healthy troops. It looks a little bumpy for a wounded soldier, plus it's way too slow: you need to get casualties to a hospital ASAP. Helicopters would still be a much better choice for medevac.

yeah, well that's where the "improved speed and stability" I mentioned come into play.

There can be situations where helicopters are less than ideal, and this doesn't have to be limited to soldeirs either. Assuming this could be produced cheaply in the future (compared to helicopters of course), you could have one of these in smaller towns, especially towns with rough terrain, where a helicopter would otherwise take a while to fly in from the nearest city.

Carrying supplies is a given, considering that's what it was doing in the video, healthy troops can walk themselves, I don't know why it would be carrying them.

[Rapax]

There can be situations where helicopters are less than ideal, and this doesn't have to be limited to soldeirs either. Assuming this could be produced cheaply in the future (compared to helicopters of course), you could have one of these in smaller towns, especially towns with rough terrain, where a helicopter would otherwise take a while to fly in from the nearest city.

Sorry but at what point exactly would this "dog" run faster than a helicopter can fly? I don't really understand your proposition. Helicopters are used either when time is of the essence or to access areas that are inaccessible by land vehicles. I don't see a walking robot win out in either of those cases.

[ajm317]

Sorry but at what point exactly would this "dog" run faster than a helicopter can fly? I don't really understand your proposition. Helicopters are used either when time is of the essence or to access areas that are inaccessible by land vehicles. I don't see a walking robot win out in either of those cases.

I suppose the obvious example would be situations where a helicopter can't land, either due to heavy small arms fire or RPG's. Also, you could just take a robot along with you wherever you go, you can't really carry a helicopter around, meaning everytime you want to use one you have to call it out from the nearest airfield. The robot Ramashan mentioned was supposed to get wounded out of dangerous situations, and probably transfer them to a helicopter after that.

Basically any situation you could imagine yourself carrying a guy, or equipment, that's where you could use a robot.

EDIT: I suppose the_mango55's point in regards to civilian use was...helicopters are expensive. Presumably these would cost less, allowing you to distribute more of them.

[Rapax]

I suppose the obvious example would be situations where a helicopter can't land, either due to heavy small arms fire or RPG's. Also, you could just take a robot along with you wherever you go, you can't really carry a helicopter around, meaning everytime you want to use one you have to call it out from the nearest airfield. The robot Ramashan mentioned was supposed to get wounded out of dangerous situations, and probably transfer them to a helicopter after that.

That's hardly a substitute for a helicopter then. If you wanna use robots to get wounded out of the fire, that's fine, but you still need helicopters to transport them quickly to a hospital. I suppose without any other support, it is better than having to carry them yourself but by no means is it faster or easier than a helicopter.

[Simetrical]

Why did people used to ride camels and donkeys? Even healthy troops can't walk quickly all day, especially not over rough or otherwise difficult terrain. They have trouble walking in the dark. And so on.

[Ramashan]

They are actually working on other robots to help wounded soldiers that combine human like walking un stairs and over uneven terrain and tank like treads for speed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6729745.stm

[Cluny the Scourge]

This project has to be shut down and the BigDog system destroyed before it's too late. Haven't these people ever even SEEN The Terminator? BostonTech - Cyberdyne...this will get out of hand and then we will all be ed.

[MrMofo]

next up, put a gun on it.

[boofhead]

That is definitely creepy. If that thing came at me in the wild I would run for my life. The motor makes it a nightmare.

[Mythos]

That is definitely creepy. If that thing came at me in the wild I would run for my life. The motor makes it a nightmare.

Or make a trap. Given that even humans experienced in traps can fall for one, a robot will fall for it 9 times out of 10. Nevertheless, impressive technology.

[kev-o]

That thing is spooky. Imagine you stumbling upon that thing. I would run like hell from it even though its to help me.

@ Rapax

Love your new sig. Sara is indeed a babe

[Chaigidel]

for years im sure many of you had the same image, of the robotic machine, the machine that looks and acts like a machine so to speak--- but in the future, the machines will be just as organic as us, the way this thing moves gives me a strange feeling, I can see clearly that machines will be much more organic than we ever imagined, eventually they will even have flesh, ground machines especially with these spindly legs.

but honestly something made me feel very uncomfortable about how it moved.

[Bokks]

I think the uncomfort you felt when it moved had to do with the precision of its two legs moving in unison. Here it's just so the thing doesn't fall over when it's ~500 pound (if I read that right, 200 pound dog with 350 lb. load) frame is in motion, in nature something moves like that only when its hunting. Well, horses trot kinda like that, but...

Anyway, I didn't think about that thing having any applications for carrying people, but scouting out and sniffing for bombs or other traps, now that would be handy. Mythos is right to some degree, if we just MacGyvered some kind of trap it'd probably never sense it, but what it would sense and I bet easily are mines, metal lines, pits, some kind of metal infused or specific design like that. And if it got caught... well, it's not a person.

I'm not sure if something truly organic is entirely possible; it would require a self-replicating feature that far extends even what nano-bots would be capable of. We are constantly growing new skin and getting rid of old, blood cells last something like two weeks before they have to be replaced. Something that looks organic or maybe even have organic properties is probably feasable, but the kind of organic exoskin like Arnie had in the Terminator series would require a lot more than simply slapping some skin on him and giving him a big battery, any machine would probably wear out within days of constant exertion. If not, it'd require a huge amount of power. The capacity to break down entire and vast arrays of foods into amino acids and proteins far extends past anything a machine would be able to supply itself by "plugging in". It'd have to eat, and probably more than we do, and there are already food shortages in the world.