Robots from Boston Dynamics and more

[editor]

They're retiring Big Dog because he's too freaking noisy.

The LS3 robot, more popularly known by its earliest nickname, BigDog, is being retired. Despite hopes that it would one day work as a pack mule for US soldiers in the field, this dog had too much bark. Which is to say, it was simply too noisey.

The earliest versions of this quadruped robot were first made by Boston Dynamics in 2008 and then under a $32 million contract from Darpa in 2010. By 2012 it was known as the AlphaDog, despite the fact that the name BigDog had stuck in the popular imagination. And its evolution was carefully tracked by robot enthusiasts around the world. But on the cusp of 2016, the US military is taking this dog behind the shed and putting it down.

“As Marines were using it, there was the challenge of seeing the potential possibility because of the limitations of the robot itself,” Kyle Olson, a spokesperson for the Marines’ Warfighting Lab, told Military.com. “They took it as it was: a loud robot that’s going to give away their position.”
http://gizmodo.com/rip-bigdog-darpas-robotic-pack-mule-1750015349

 

[NoXion]

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.

A good reason for making human-shaped robots is that they would be able to make use of common tools, infrastructure, vehicles,
and so on without needing a plethora of special adaptations. Even the most reliable robotic labour unit isn't going to find many businesses willing to buy or rent them if they get foxed by a door handle or a staircase. A robot capable of using tools that can be bought in any hardware store is going to be more popular than one that requires an entire set of expensive plug-in versions.

 

[editor]

Meet the new guy! Watch him take a beating from 1.30.

 

[bimble]

^ amazing. He needs to get into the warehouse-workers union though .

 

[Bonfirelight]

that's kind of scary.

When the bloke knocks the box out of its hands and pushes it with the stick, you half expect it to retaliate..

 

[HAL9000]

Meet the new guy! Watch him take a beating from 1.30.

Boston dynamics will be first against the wall when the revolution comes!

 

[DrRingDing]

I wonder how long it'll be before similar robots are used for genocide.

 

[DotCommunist]

you might get freaked out by how it moves. That isn't when to be scared. When that thing is weaponised and it stops moving thats because it has you made. The hail of lead will follow swiftly and these cats don't miss.

I'm increasingly thinking we citizen soldiers need to work up a decent EMP. That can be put in a grenade or in some sort of rifle. Because if the tech goes as predicted we are going to have remote operated teletroopers piloting war mecha while backed up by hideous semi autonomous drone dogs. Fuckin. Just no.

 

[DotCommunist]

urgh and you just know some horrific cunt would model a semi AI drone routine on doggy behaviour. It works right?

 

[Crispy]

Very impressive. Vision is the next big problem of course - this thing needs marker patterns stuck to everything it interacts with.

you might get freaked out by how it moves. That isn't when to be scared. When that thing is weaponised and it stops moving thats because it has you made. The hail of lead will follow swiftly and these cats don't miss.

I'm increasingly thinking we citizen soldiers need to work up a decent EMP. That can be put in a grenade or in some sort of rifle. Because if the tech goes as predicted we are going to have remote operated teletroopers piloting war mecha while backed up by hideous semi autonomous drone dogs. Fuckin. Just no.

A hockey stick should do it

 

[NoXion]

Isn't battery life also a significant limitation? We don't see the robot in the latest video operating for very long, and I seem to remember that the BigDog used a very noisy internal combustion engine when they took it outside.

 

[DotCommunist]

Isn't battery life also a significant limitation? We don't see the robot in the latest video operating for very long, and I seem to remember that the BigDog used a very noisy internal combustion engine when they took it outside.

darpa gave one to a frontline unit and they trained with it then said fuck off that cunts so noisy they can hear it in russia. Dead useful if the enemy is lightly armed civilians fighting a desperate retreat, not so much elsewhere. Elswhere its a very expensive liability.

 

[NoXion]

darpa gave one to a frontline unit and they trained with it then said fuck off that cunts so noisy they can hear it in russia. Dead useful if the enemy is lightly armed civilians fighting a desperate retreat, not so much elsewhere. Elswhere its a very expensive liability.

Useful for what though? The thing looks like its only real use would be for carrying gear (and why not use a Humvee for that? in the trackless mountains of Afghanistan it might make sense, but it would be pointless anywhere with more than the most rudimentary of dirt roads), so even against lightly armed civilians that's a big noisy target that would have be defended with manpower that might be better spent elsewhere, since it can't defend itself.

 

[DotCommunist]

Useful for what though? The thing looks like its only real use would be for carrying gear (and why not use a Humvee for that? in the trackless mountains of Afghanistan it might make sense, but it would be pointless anywhere with more than the most rudimentary of dirt roads), so even against lightly armed civilians that's a big noisy target that would have be defended with manpower that might be better spent elsewhere, since it can't defend itself.

and even then, theres a reason the locals use goats in mountain country etc.

Use would be (I'm assuming, the article didn't say) perhaps carrying wounded back home? hauling the big guns? None of which when I think about it can't be done better by existing tech anyway. Perhaps cyberdynes time is further away than we think

 

[NoXion]

and even then, theres a reason the locals use goats in mountain country etc.

Use would be (I'm assuming, the article didn't say) perhaps carrying wounded back home? hauling the big guns? None of which when I think about it can't be done better by existing tech anyway. Perhaps cyberdynes time is further away than we think

Computer vision and battery life are the areas in which significant breakthroughs would be needed, I think. A lot of combatants these days don't even bother wearing uniforms, let alone obligingly mark themselves with distinctive QR code-like symbols.

 

[DotCommunist]

Computer vision and battery life are the areas in which significant breakthroughs would be needed, I think. A lot of combatants these days don't even bother wearing uniforms, let alone obligingly mark themselves with distinctive QR code-like symbols.

if its teleoperated you can sort of get round the visual problem I suppose. But then thats its own problem, one 'oh shit that was a wedding party?' and two, its junk if theres no signal coming in. What do the mars vehicles bimbling around use other than solar and why can't solar power a bot here? the answers very likely 'gravity' isn't it

 

[NoXion]

if its teleoperated you can sort of get round the visual problem I suppose. But then thats its own problem, one 'oh shit that was a wedding party?' and two, its junk if theres no signal coming in. What do the mars vehicles bimbling around use other than solar and why can't solar power a bot here? the answers very likely 'gravity' isn't it

The Curiosity rover currently operating on Mars is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. Solar is a poor choice for a combat robot because of the low energy density and the fact that the solar panels would be large and vulnerable. RTGs aren't used because plutonium being spilled everywhere is a bad result even for most evil imperialists.

 

[mwgdrwg]

It scares me to think that Boston Dynamics makes military robots. There will be weapons attached one day.

These are the 'land drones' of the future.

 

[bimble]

Useful for what though? The thing looks like its only real use would be for carrying gear (and why not use a Humvee for that? in the trackless mountains of Afghanistan it might make sense, but it would be pointless anywhere with more than the most rudimentary of dirt roads), so even against lightly armed civilians that's a big noisy target that would have be defended with manpower that might be better spent elsewhere, since it can't defend itself.

Drones have got that covered already haven't they? (The travelling the world killing people side of things).
This one is clearly a shelf stacker on a zero hours contract , who you can kick as much as you feel like.

 

[mwgdrwg]

Computer vision and battery life are the areas in which significant breakthroughs would be needed, I think. A lot of combatants these days don't even bother wearing uniforms, let alone obligingly mark themselves with distinctive QR code-like symbols.

Probably be remotely controlled by a human with existing camera tech before the vision/AI improves.

 

[NoXion]

Drones have got that covered already haven't they? (The travelling the world killing people side of things).
This one is clearly a shelf stacker on a zero hours contract , who you can kick as much as you feel like.

Air power has always been a bit of a blunt instrument, militarily speaking. It's gotten a bit more precise since the days of Dresden, but there are still tasks which need boots on the ground, so to speak. That's why land drones will always be attractive to military engineers.

Shelf-stackers will probably come first, though. The supermarket is a more controlled environment than a battlefield.

Thing is though, if you replace all the workers with robots, who will buy all the wonderful products that the robots make?

 

[editor]

RUN! Run I tell you!

 

[Mrs Miggins]

Fucking love the jump and the cry of "ooohhhhh yeah!"

 

[Fez909]

That last one is not nightmare inducingg". It's more odd than creepy.

 

[editor]

Say hello to Handle. It laughs at your puny human bodies.

Handle is a research robot that stands 6.5 ft tall, travels at 9 mph and jumps 4 feet vertically. It uses electric power to operate both electric and hydraulic actuators, with a range of about 15 miles on one battery charge. Handle uses many of the same dynamics, balance and mobile manipulation principles found in the quadruped and biped robots we build, but with only about 10 actuated joints, it is significantly less complex. Wheels are efficient on flat surfaces while legs can go almost anywhere: by combining wheels and legs Handle can have the best of both worlds.

 

[editor]

Takin' the dogs for a walk

 

[A380]

Kill it with fire now.

 

[NoXion]

Kill it with fire now.

Which one?

 

[pengaleng]

Kill it with fire now.

I am glad someones got the right fucking idea, if my phone ever starts talking to me which aint just links from google I am smashing it with a brick

 

[A380]

Which one?

All of them!