Holy Smokes

[liralen]

An actual, four-legged robot that works bizarrely well.

Here's a video of it walking on some pretty tricky terrain.

I like what reality serves up every once in a while.  Wow.  Now I want  the tachigomi.  

Comments

[grey-lady.livejournal.com]

I was rather impressed by that, especially since my original expectation was that it would move one leg at a time, leaving a stable 3 on the ground, but it's "trotting" in places.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Exactly! The part where the guy kicks it across icy pavement really bemused me, it recovers almost like any four-legged creature might.

[agrimony.livejournal.com]

It's actually a little creepy to watch exactly because it does correct itself like any four-legged creature might... and keeps plodding forward once it has. Creeeeeeeepy.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's that creep factor that fascinates me. Yeesh. Almost... real...

[chrisber.livejournal.com]

Wow. Maybe we are in the 21st century after all!

Pretty amazing - I wonder what it's range is, although if it can carry 340 lbs. payload, that's a lot of fuel.

The creepiness factor is pretty high, too.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

It is pretty amazing and creepy. *hee*

I wonder if you could google it and figure out specs?

[chrisber.livejournal.com]

The fact sheet at Boston Dynamics doesn't mention much in the way of specs. But I didn't look too hard as I was easily distracted by their other cool robots.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Oo! Thank you!

[tagryn]

This video has now reached enough meme status to have spawned a parody.

And, another in the same vein as the Big Dog.

These do put a chill up my spine, because it reminds me of a prediction made by a futurist I respect immensely:

"Though we cannot foresee the alignments and confrontations that will determine the wars of the next century, we can make informed guesses as to the weapons that will be used in these wars. In 2081, the individual human in war will no longer be the hero of romantic history, but only a shivering, naked hostage to fortune: a victim. The research that first develops human-level robots, weather or not they are furnished with bodies in human shape, will be funded primarily by the military...Ultimately the glamourous figure of the wartime fighter-pilot will give way to the robot: able to withstand thousands of gravities of acceleration while the human can withstand only ten; needing no complicated life-support system; far tougher than fragile human flesh in surviving radiation; knowing no fatigue; never subject to doubt, despair, or pangs of conscience; merciless."

- Gerald K. O'Neill, 2081, pg 244.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Mmm... that is chilling and probably quite correct.