Topic: Small dog?

Hi,

Have you seen this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww ?

Scary, huh?

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Regards,
Elias

That is amazing how that thing manages to stay upright. Although if I were in the woods and I saw that thing coming toward me, you'd better believe I'd be running real fast in the other direction.

I wasn't surprised to see the DARPA sponsorship at the end. Throughout the whole video I kept thinking about the military applications of the device. Imagine if you mounted weapons on that thing... or high-tech reconnaissance equipment.


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Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

those recoveries on ice are wild... I wouldn't want to sit on one when it's doing that

and hey, it can imitate a fainting goat*g*.

I for one welcome our small dog, bionic arm controlling Monkey overlords.

This is grotesque yet fascinating... I'm going to have nightmares tonight

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Blaise said:

I for one welcome our small dog, bionic arm controlling Monkey overlords.

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I wonder when there will be a similar solution for humans ... right now paralyzed people with robotic prosthetic arms have to do all kinds of stupid shit to move their arms. They map the muscle nerves from their chest area to the prosthetic arm and then it's all very slow and there's a long learning curve etc...

This is actually one of the better examples ... but it's still clunky and requires all those interfaces to all kind of different muscles, doesn't include real feedback - the only feedback that it's got is a small vibrating motor ...

Unfortunately for many people real bionic arms are still a long long way from reality.

See also: http://www.bostondynamics.com/content/sec.php?section=BigDog
Check out RHex, RiSE, and LittleDog too

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Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.

Creepy... DARPA

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

The Space Between Us | My Blog: lukas.grumet.at

Hehe, nice find mas!

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var Liorean = {
abode: "http://codingforums.com/",
profile: "http://codingforums.com/member.php?u=5798"};

Wow!

I didn't know that they were that far along!

I wonder how far along they really are (considering that this has been released to public viewing, what is still secret)?

WebShaman | The keenest sorrow (and greatest truth) is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
- Sophocles

Hi

@mas: nice one! at first I didn't notice something wrong, but then "hey! these are two feet" ....
@WebShaman: yeah, you're right, what is still secret?!

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Regards,
Elias

Heh... I was watching the video mas posted and thinking, "Wow, that's pretty creepy. It looks just like two pairs of legs! In fact, it looks like two guys in leotards with their heads stuck in a box. Oh, wait..."


___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

It's too slow, too noisy and too stupid imo :P most probably not even a robot but rcv ... if that thing was a real robot that could follow you around in a forest silently and intelligently (not bump into trees) then it'd be useful. I think that rough terrain and the need for stealth go hand in hand most of the time. And where you don't need stealth you can use cars, rcv's with wheels, helicopters etc ... just use real mules ... animal activists can go and *** ... after all no one even counts the animals that get killed in combat.

Yeah, but you gotta start somewhere, right? I'm sure they're looking at this as a step in the process, not a final product.

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Arthurio said:

It's too slow, too noisy and too stupid imo :P most probably not even a robot but rcv ... if that thing was a real robot that could follow you around in a forest silently and intelligently (not bump into trees) then it'd be useful. I think that rough terrain and the need for stealth go hand in hand most of the time. And where you don't need stealth you can use cars, rcv's with wheels, helicopters etc ... just use real mules ... animal activists can go and *** ... after all no one even counts the animals that get killed in combat.

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The thing is, how far along are they really? Judging from that video, things may look a bit clunky, but it establishes a point of fact to base conjecture on. That it can balance, recover from an unexpected directional force, and go up and downhill was shown in the video - finetuning such to allow for stealthy movement should be possible.

What isn't answered is what range does the thing have, how independent is it really, and what type of sensors does it use to navigate with?

One can basically project secret military projects to be a decade ahead (give or take a few years) of what is publically known.

I basically can see all types of military uses for such a mobile base, especially in mountainous terrain.

WebShaman | The keenest sorrow (and greatest truth) is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
- Sophocles

I wonder if they can completely silence the engine and cool it at the same time ... why they wouldn't include any (armor or otherwise) plating and a muffler looks suspicious to me. The climbing mode looks awfully slow. I doubt that's just a tuning issue ... more likely they can't find a more powerful engine for it that wouldn't be too big, too heavy or fuel inefficient. Haven't seen any significant/meaningful advances since I first saw it ... maybe I'm just expecting too much.