[Gada Mazaha]

Holy. Crap.

Boston Dynamics keeps working on their BigDog quadruped robot, which will probably grow to be the future AT-AT of the Pentagon. Its evolution since the last time we saw it is nothing sort of mindblowing, and a bit spooky.

It looks like an actual biological quadruped. Seeing it climb through rubble, snow, jumping over obstacles like a wild goat, and saving a near-fall on iced ground at the last second (fast forward to the middle of the video) defies belief. It feels so "animal" that I almost feel bad when they hit it to demonstrate how it regains balance on its own.

The new version of the robot can now carry 340 pounds, which is almost triple the previous weight. It looks to me that that $10 million funding they got from Darpa has been put to good use.

[Aun]

O MY GOD. I WANT ONE!!!!!!!!

[GeekyGator]

Holy crap! I truly am amazed at what the defense industry has been pumping out lately.

[Tralfagar]

Wow! That's an amazing piece of work they've got there. Jumps, catches itself, and can go up/down different types of terrain.

[Grandpa Ducky]

...

That was so cool. I wasn't impressed at first, but when that guy kicked it and it was able to friggin' balance itself, I was shocked. That shock turned to total awe when it was on the ice and then the final jump scene was just the icing on the cake.

I want one. ;D

-Grandpa Ducky

[Spiritbw]

Quite a improvment form the initial trials for a legged machine the US military had back in the 1970s. The first concept just to get an idea of what they were facing was a truck modfied with legs instead of wheels with controls so the driver could control each joint seperatly.

It took an hour to take a step and that was with the driver going full tilt to adjust everything so it could do just that.

We've come a long way but what will really be a hurdle is if they can get it to run ubder those same conditions. The control and balance changes drasticly during a run but it already seems to have a good turn of speed if that one scene towards the end before the bricks is anythiing to go by as the guy on the boom arm is jogging to keep up.

[khanaris]

Good lord. I have never seen anything like that. It was moving like a living thing. You could almost see it thinking when it was recovering from a fall on the ice, or when the guy kicked it. I see what the commentator meant. I caught myself feeling sorry for it.

There has always been a lot of discussion about legged vehicles vs. tracked or wheeled vehicles. We never had a way of making legs more efficient. But there is no way a wheeled or tracked vehicle could handle some of those obstacles. That is truly amazing. I wonder how much of that is automated?

Military uses aside, can you imagine what this technology could do for people with disabilities? I wonder how long it will be before we see walking wheelchairs and fully functional artificial limbs.

[crisis_vyper]

Well, I am not too surprised at its life-like movements, but nevertheless I am impressed with its balancing system. Once you see too many Japanese Robots you tend to believe that you can have a Droid army within 5 years. The DARPA one is rahter interesting indeed.

Say hello to the era of Armoured Core ! :P

[Zen]

Note to self: Go to America and proceed to steal their robotic technology. Do likewise in Japan. Then proceed to further improve on the technology and create driod army and Megas XLR-like robot to smash the Ministry of Education.

Hehe but seriously, looks like they catching up to the japanese. But I guess Americans will create the Terminator while the Japanese will create a persocal robot that acts like computer like in that anime that I can't remember and Crisis_Vyper should know.

[crisis_vyper]

Originally Posted by Zenai

Hehe but seriously, looks like they catching up to the japanese. But I guess Americans will create the Terminator while the Japanese will create a persocal robot that acts like computer like in that anime that I can't remember and Crisis_Vyper should know.

If you are talking about Chi, then yes I do know know what you are talking about.

But that saying, there are already human-sized Robots in Japan for customer service and also medical welfare in Japan and Korea.