Robots from Boston Dynamics and more

[HAL9000]

Clever/scary as fuck.

Key issue with these robots is the power supply. Atlas needs a power cable, so ok for fukushima but robocop might have a problem or two.
The bottom robot, wild cat is very noisy requiring a petrol engine to provide power.

Like electric cars, powering the robots will be difficult.

 

[Crispy]

Whoever cracks the electricity storage problem is going to absolutely coin it.

 

[HAL9000]

Looks like strong radiation is a problem as well, Prof Dennis Hong, director of Virginia Tech's Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory

Even so, he recognises it will be some time before robots ride to the rescue.

"In a real nuclear power plant the radiation would kill all of the electronics," he notes.

"Radiation shielding is a big problem and will need years of research and development.

"But what I'm excited about is first the opportunity for us to draw up new breakthrough technologies, and second for the general public to really see what these robots are good for."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25398416

 

[RedDragon]

That poor robot is going to need a hip replacement if they don't quit hitting it with that ball

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

That poor robot is going to need a hip replacement if they don't quit hitting it with that ball

It'll never know, though: it doesn't have a head.

 

[Smyz]

That poor robot is going to need a hip replacement if they don't quit hitting it with that ball

One of the BBC reports finished with that clip and "If we don't stop hitting them they will come after us"

 

[camouflage]

You all remember Big Dog, the 4-legged cargo robot with uncannily lifelike movement, that could walk on uneven groun, even ice, and resist being pushed over. Now, there's new video of Boston Dynamics latest project, Petman. A Bipedal robot of similar size and weight as a human, that has full dynamic stability whilst performing a wide range of human motion including walking, running, squatting, kneeling and even press-ups. This is the absolute cutting edge of humanoid robotics. Incredible stuff.

Androidynamic.

 

[camouflage]

It's all happening right before our eyes.

People have always said that.

 

[camouflage]

Au contraire I heard a report on the electric wireless about population change that said that population expansion will cease by about 2050 and decline from there on. It didn't say why, but perhaps resources comes into it.

I liked the comment in a post above about 'when it gets up and running'. It looks to me as if that will be the next stage on from the urgent marching that it does at the moment.

I noticed that during that test a man leaned out and pushed the robot off track. It just corrected itself and carried on. The next model will hit the man back and floor him.

Women's education and modern life, and America has always sought to multiply what one human can do due to their massive amounts of space and resources compared to their population, it's the Amechanization way.

 

[editor]

Oh my Lord!

 

[Bob_the_lost]

Welcome to the valley of the unreal.

 

[DotCommunist]

China has moved into the semi autonomous killer death machine game:

Hailed as a "mountain four-legged moving robot", this was specially built to traverse across rocky terrains, having footing that is as sure as a mountain goat. It is also said to have been tested successfully under situations where roads have already been destroyed, regardless of whether it is in a wartime situation or at a disaster scene such as an earthquake or landslide.

This robot will tip the scales at 130 kg, and it has the ability to tote up to 50 kg of supplies and items, not to mention being able to amble along at a top speed of 3mph as it navigates through slopes of up to 30 degrees.

Looks awfully familiar doesn't it. Thgey've just nicked the plans and reverse engineered bigdog LOL

 

[The Boy]

does China even bother with the reverse engineering bit these days?

 

[Treacle Toes]

Oh my Lord!

That is creepy shit. The robot has face recognition software too which means it makes eye contact/eyes follow people around the room.

 

[Crispy]

China has moved into the semi autonomous killer death machine game:

Looks awfully familiar doesn't it. Thgey've just nicked the plans and reverse engineered bigdog LOL

The physical design isn't the hard bit, IMO

 

[editor]

Big Dog has a more nimble brother.

Meet the nimble, kick-resisting robot of the future called Spot from the Boston Dynamic team

 

[Neutron 9000]

This kind of advanced robotics has now filtered into the mainstream movie business with Chappie.

 

[camouflage]

The physical design isn't the hard bit, IMO

Aye, it's all about the ai.

 

[editor]

Here's the latest update:

 

[HAL9000]

Its interesting but.....

the robots for the darpa challenge were teleoperation systems, i.e. a human had to constantly supply commands. Like a bomb disposal robot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleoperation

Boston dynamics work is useful research because it means the balance is automatic and a human tells the robot where to go.

Two big improvements needed,

• more autonomy (humans only needing to monitor/supply instructions occasionally.)
  
• self contained power supply which allows the robot to do useful work.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

Oh my Lord!

oh my word that is alarming! It's the way she blinks. And the way I just called her "she"!
Woah!

I do find it annoying that I'm going to be dead before these things get any good though

 

[ItWillNeverWork]

Oh my Lord!

Agggrrrrrr! Make it stop. MAKE IT STOP!

 

[NoXion]

Oh my Lord!

That thing is hideous, especially the face. I honestly think that the Boston Dynamics robots are better looking. At least with those things the only creepiness (for me at least) is down to the fact that surprisingly organic-looking movement is being produced by something obviously mechanical.

 

[editor]

Behold the drone table tennis player!

 

[weltweit]

.. Energy storage is the big problem with autonomous robots. Batteries suck, and our actuators are inefficient.

Surely they could use animal muscles and sinews. Pump blood round and fire the muscles as and when needed?

 

[NoXion]

Surely they could use animal muscles and sinews. Pump blood round and fire the muscles as and when needed?

The problem that I can see with that is that animal muscles evolved to function as an integral part of a wider organism, intermeshed with not just a cardiovascular system but also a nervous system, a digestive system, a lymphatic system, various hormonal responses, and so on. For example, blood cells have a limited service life and will need replacing. In animal bodies the function of replacing blood cells is (partly?) done by bone marrow, so while it *might* be possible to stick some of it in an artificial skeleton to keep the animal muscles supplied with blood, you're then faced with the question of what sustains the marrow as well as the muscles themselves, which will wear out with use and will need to be replaced or repaired. In ordinary animals this function is partly catered for by the digestive system which processes food into the necessary building blocks, namely proteins. By this point you might as well say "fuck it" and just use a mule instead and save a ton of money as well as decades of research effort in the process.

Having said that however, it might be worth it for robot engineers to take some of their design cues from nature; electro-active polymers could be developed to form the basis for entirely artificial "muscles", especially if they can be made more efficient/precise than regular pistons or servomotors. More speculatively, some sort of artificial circulatory system could be used to distribute a fluid through the robot's chassis that repairs any damaged components it runs across. Basically any engineering solution that natural selection has blindly stumbled upon and kept in use over million or billions of years might possibly be adapted into an artificial design, if it's not too complex to do so or not too interdependent on other things to work.

 

[weltweit]

... By this point you might as well say "fuck it" and just use a mule instead and save a ton of money as well as decades of research effort in the process.

Don't get me wrong, I love technology but I would be sorely tempted to - say "fuck it" and use the mule

 

[Crispy]

Approach the problem from the other side - just replace the mule's head with a computer so you don't feel bad about working it to death.

 

[DotCommunist]

but I name my toaster and cry when it breaks. Where does this leave me? fucked is where.

 

[Wolveryeti]

I am not convinced of the logic of making robots resemble humans. I mean it is not like with now seven billion humans on the planet that we are likely to have a shortage of humans anytime soon.

Yes but a lot of the humans will be ageing and not very able to do physical work. So this is potentially a bit of a game changer. It could mean that the old get the retirement they expected without having to enslave the.young.