A wee bit of Terminator-style creepiness
A company named Boston Dynamics has developed a robot that mimics the way a human being walks – well, at least the way a slightly tipsy human being walks:
It was built to “to test military suits used to protect soldiers in chemical warfare”, and you can read the rest here.
Seeing that tipsy walk with red tennis shoes and a droid-looking body on top was mildly creepy. I can’t believe they missed the opportunity to increase the effect by putting an Arnold Schwarzenegger mannequin head on top.
(Found on GeekPress)
I, for one, would like to welcome our new robot overlords…
These are the same guys that created BigDog.
I recall seeing the video of that being demo’d and immediately disliking the guy who kept kicking it to show it recovered it’s balance.
I don’t welcome the robot overlords, but if I can get a mechanical dog who minds a little better than my two (lovable spoiled rotten) danes maybe I’ll sign on.
I read an article recently about a prosthetic hand that can “feel” by sending electrical signals back to the brain. So instead of the Terminator from the movies, who shrugged off physical assaults as “data,” the real terminators will say “OUCH! Dammit that hurt!“
Seems to me to be more Star Wars AT-ST, than terminator.
Instead of pushing it, maybe the researchers should try a bunch of rollers or squashing it between two wooden beams.
Being kindof chubby, hairy and cuddly, I could volunteer to run the experiments.
“I’M BACK!!!”
I wonder if the ‘tipsy’ gate comes from a lack of arms. From what I understand we swing our arms when we walk as a sort of counter balance.
Hadn’t thought about it, but I bet it is a factor. I wonder if they will add swinging arms to a future prototype.
I’ve read that human beings are actually the best engineered animals on the planet for energy-efficient long distance running. Many evolutionary biologists are now considering whether the primary form of hunting wasn’t “run up and kill it with a spear”, but “keep running it down until it’s exhausted and then kill it with a spear”. There are African tribes that are known to practice that hunting technique.
Well, I’d be out of luck if my food could run more than about 25 yards!
Check out their “Big Dog” robot – plenty of vids on YouTube. It is mind-blowing.