Freakishly Amazing

[Nebula]

Something I saw on either the History or Discovery channel last night that simply blew my mind. The military is developing a 'robot dog' that will help carry cargo for infantry on the battlefield. I had no idea we had this kind of technology available to us. Soon we'll have up-right walking human drones who will probably be able to move as well as we do.. maybe if not better? O_o

Check out this video of this amazing 'dog'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6ToNUeog7o

[Phenix]

they should paint it so it looks like siamese twins, conjoined at the head!

[Raven]

it does look kinda freaky.. i wouldn't want that thing marching next to me for too long.. the buzzing itself would drive me nuts

[Sammie]

that's one big noisey dog

[Smashley]

any advantage over an ATV??

[Solomn]

Only advantage I see is that it is more portable than an ATV. You could carry a few of these in the back of a 5 ton with the troops when you are deploying and then unfold the legs. They would have to bring down that noise a ton to make it any worth to troops in the field though.

[Hae-Yu]

It took a while to see that it wasn't 2 guys facing each other because when it walks, the "forward" legs walk like a guy going backwards instead of an ostrich. Why are both sets of "knees" inward facing? Must be stability or bidirectional capabilities, but no animal I know of has knees like that.

The stability and recovery capabilities after being kicked were pretty sweet, though. It's cool they are getting these innovations in a useful environment.

How is it controlled? If you have to RC it, that will be a pain in the ass. Maybe voice commands, GPS waypoints, or it follows a transmitter in a guys belt. OR maybe combine it with the autonomous vehicles from the Grand Races that DARPA scheduled in the desert here. A robot vehicle rolls along at 50 mph to the forward site, then deploys several of these to creep up to the units with supplies (ammo, food). It seems like kicking pallets out of a helicopter may be less of a hassle, faster, and more efficent though.

I can see hikers, geologers, researchers, etc using this to carry extra gear. Say on the moon, Mars, Antarctica, etc where a good pack animal can't go.

On a side note but related to sci-fi near u
The commercialization of space (and therefore the availability to us) is starting to reach critical mass. Lots of startups and they have ambitious schedules. The dude behind budget suites just signed a contract with Lockheed Martin to use modified Atlas rockets and plans to have a space hotel in orbit by 2009 or 2010. With this much interest and financial backing, it's coming soon. Another commercial enterprise had his launch blow up soon after launch from New Mexico's space port, but the fact is commercial rocketry is now starting to become a serious business. If 50 fail and 2 succeed, those 2 will encourage hundreds more.

[thegreaterbad]

I agree with everyone on the noise aspect, but otherwise, Excellent tool! I mean, when they kicked it, they werent trying to be gentle. It looked like a solid kick to the side, and the robot is able to keep its balance like a real animal is something too cool.

[Ranma]

Its a slow, clumsy, loud piece of shit.. Poop on it..

[HHBizzle]

it sure is freaky loookin though, kinda eerie; like an animal with its head chopped off being controleed by something

[Nebula]

I definitely agree about the noise. It is way too loud as is. The TV show didnt have the robot making any noise.. I guess this is the footage they filmed before they dubbed a narrorator over everything.

I wouldnt say the robot is completely clumsy... although it does appear to be so. I only give it the benefit of the doubt because I saw other robots they were working on. They had a 1-"legged" robot that was able to hop up and down like it was on a pogo stick... it bounced around a little, but it never fell over. Another one they had was a 2-legged robot running on a tredmill. It was able to run, jump... do a forward flip... land, then keep running with the tredmill. So I really believe the dog is capable of much more than what is shown here. I think the main benefit of this 'dog' to the military would be to simply drop it off with the troops (wherever that may be) and just carry additional cargo. Sometimes you cant reach your troops by air or even by land in some situations... so to have something there to carry all of your crap would just be nice. Help save energy for the troops.

[HHBizzle]

i bet the4 legged one could jump real high with its legs in that position! it could do a super robotic squat and then take off, leapng cliffs and ravines, hunting the ever hidden OSAMA!

[papa smurf]

hah! u said squat!

[Nebula]

hah! u said squat!

so did you!