Robot dog monster thing!

[Sunspots]

Apologies if this has been posted already, but this is equal parts amazing and fucking spooky:
Details: http://www.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2008/03/17/daily13.html

Sadly (-given that it's DARPA funded), this has clear warfare potential.

 

[fogbat]

Tis very kin' cool.

The way it corrects itself when shoved is incredible.

 

[Sunspots]

The way it corrects itself when shoved is incredible.

Yeah, it's amazing.

And scary.

 

[Jim Williams]

Cor!

 

[May Kasahara]

That's very weird indeed. The stumbling/righting itself movement is so lifelike, it's hard to remember you're watching a thing.

 

[SpookyFrank]

It looks uncannily like it's got two pairs of human legs dunnit? Reminds me a bit of Fahrenheit 451...

 

[mauvais]

Robot dog's greatest moment will be when it gets confused by a pile of bricks, and a hapless pinned down army unit watches it slowly prance away with all their guns and ammo.

 

[Strumpet]

Wow...
Just watched that with mini-me and her comment was "that's just weird"

 

[FridgeMagnet]

It's pretty cool, though you have to think, it's basically a pack mule for about a million times the price.

 

[Sunspots]

It looks uncannily like it's got two pairs of human legs dunnit?

Yeah, it moves so freakishly that I was at times trying hard to convince myself it was just two drama students in a kind of high-tech pantomime horse.

I'm no conspiri-loon, but if this is the kind of stuff that DARPA-funded companies are allowing us to see, god only knows what else they've developed that they're keeping under wraps...

And this is surely only a proto-type. Give it a few years, and who knows, they'll probably have built-in laser cannons or something...

 

[editor]

It's pretty cool, though you have to think, it's basically a pack mule for about a million times the price.

Except The Man will be controlling it and be probably sticking an auto firing gun on top.

 

[samk]

Isn't the basic technology that makes this type of thing possible just computers and the kinds of motors used in hybrid cars? In which case, civilian versions of this will be made in china and walking around building sites in ten years...

 

[d.a.s.h]

Boston Dynamics was set up by the former MIT researchers who built the Spring Turkey robot. There's a video going around of Spring Turkey running round in a circle, then stumbling and trying to regain its balance, which gives a creepy contrast between the lifelike 'it wants to do something' type movements and the robot's ugly metal-and-wires appearance. It's worth watching if you can find it. Spring Turkey inspired one of the robots in Robocop - the one that fell down a flight of stairs.

 

[Boycey]

Except The Man will be controlling it and be probably sticking an auto firing gun on top.

one of these you mean?

terminator here we come.

 

[The Groke]

I wanna ride it!

 

[Bob_the_lost]

Yeah, it moves so freakishly that I was at times trying hard to convince myself it was just two drama students in a kind of high-tech pantomime horse.

I'm no conspiri-loon, but if this is the kind of stuff that DARPA-funded companies are allowing us to see, god only knows what else they've developed that they're keeping under wraps...

And this is surely only a proto-type. Give it a few years, and who knows, they'll probably have built-in laser cannons or something...

Nah, state of the art is really a but ugly dog. For infantry replacement stuff you can see what's being deployed, things that'd be ripped to bits by matilda while Craig Charles gloats if it weren't for the .50 calibre sniper rifle mounted.

 

[loud 1]

thats a little bit scary to me.

so life like in ways.

 

[alsoknownas]

Sarah Connor would have to kill that thing quick time (and whoever designed it).

 

[treefrog]

That's squicked me out and intrigued me in equal measures

does make you wonder what other cool stuff is in production...

 

[alsoknownas]

Mrs AKA reckons its a hoax . She won't be moved on the subject.

 

[MysteryGuest]

i think it's got little men inside it, so it's cheating really.

 

[story]

Freaky as fuck.

There is something... slavish about it. It's like some animal has been so beaten and broken that it has no will of its own.

You know?

I mean, it's so "real" looking that it seems like a living creature that has had its will broken.

Doesn't help that it looks like a Push-me-pull-you with no head(s).

But whyohwhy doe sit have to make that awful trapped fly noise?




Apparently,

US soldiers serving in Iraq and interviewed last year by The Washington Post developed strong emotional attachments to Packbots and Talon robots, which dispose of bombs and locate landmines, and admitted feeling deep sadness when their robots were destroyed in explosions. Some ensured the robots were reconstructed from spare parts when they were damaged and even took them fishing, using the robot arm's gripper to hold their rod.

I take it that Youtube creature is a Packbot.

 

[stargazer]

The way it walks is creeping me out.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

I saw one of these years ago. What has changed about it recently?

 

[editor]

I like BigDog, but boy is it spooky.
http://i.gizmodo.com/5172560/bigdog-quadruped-robot-turns-into-killer-spanish-bull

 

[Chester Copperpot]

I always feel a bit sorry for it when you see the people shoving it.

 

[fogbat]

I always feel a bit sorry for it when you see the people shoving it.

Don't worry - once they've fitted it with weapons, it'll fight back

 

[pk]

It's fake - LOOK!!

http://gizmodo.com/372272/video-of-bigdog-beta-quadruped-robot-is-so-stupid-its-hilarious

 

[xes]

Except The Man will be controlling it and be probably sticking an auto firing gun on top.

you can lead a mule to water, but you can't make it fire a big fuck off gun.

 

[fogbat]

It's fake - LOOK!!

http://gizmodo.com/372272/video-of-bigdog-beta-quadruped-robot-is-so-stupid-its-hilarious