BigDog Overview: Military’s Robotic Pack Mule

[Segami]

Run time: 03:25 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNZPRsrwumQ   Posted on YouTube: April 22, 2010 By YouTube Member: BostonDynamics Views on YouTube: 111314   Posted on DU: May 03, 2010 By DU Member: Segami Views on DU: 251

 
:wow: COOL!

BigDog climbs in the woods, keeps its balance when kicked and when slipping on ice, travels through snow and mud, jogs 5 mph, and climbs some rubble.:

[LongTomH]

1. Actually, it's kinda creepy!!!

It's more bug-like than dog-like. Apparently, I'm not the only person who thinks that; When K.Eric Drexler put a link to this video on his website: Metmodern.com, he added a comment: "See potentially disturbing video!"

When a comment questioned him as to why he found it disturbing, he added:

I called the Big Dog video “disturbing” because I’ve shown it to a few people, and they were disturbed. The robotic hand video might not be as deserving of that description, but has some of that effect.

This is probably culturally specific to a substantial extent. It seems that in the U.S., blurring the line between animate an inanimate bothers people more than it does in Japan, and I suspect that this is one of the reasons that Japan has excelled in robotics. They like them more.

Note that Big Dog is sponsored by DARPA, and its descendants are intended for use on the battlefield; Big Dog itself is intended to be an early prototype of a mechanized ‘pack animal’ to carry supplies over rough terrain. Looking forward though, weaponization of ground robots looks inevitable, and this could develop in directions that are very unpleasant.

More here: http://metamodern.com/2009/08/27/agile-robots-dexterous-robots-with-videos/

And the damn thing still looks like a big, honkin' spider!!!!:scared: :scared: :scared:

It makes me want to reach for a really big Black Flag can!!!!!