Darpa's Bigdog Can Now Throw Heavy Cinder Blocks

[velma 6]

A little about BigDog

BigDog is a "quadruped robot" which means four legged robot and a very impressive one to say the least. Created by Boston Dynamics with Foster-Miller, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station.

The constant development of BigDog is funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and I am in love with it. BigDog was created to be a pack mule, a safe and solid way of carrying, transporting goods from one place to another. And with the help of a computer & GPS , it can do this without a handler close by.

Suppose a city were to be hit by war or natural disaster.. You could actually send one BigDog with supplies to the location without having to worry about casualties.. They could also carry military supplies. BigDog can so far walk on its own, carry a load up to 150 kgs and maneuver over rocky / unstable / tricky terrains. So you could make this little puppy walk through slush .. What set BigDog apart however was its amazing capability of staying on its feet , even if you tried to kick it down, it would somehow find its balance and not fall.. EVEN ON ICE.. If you watch the video, they show you how it can climb over a wall of bricks, move through snow, climb up a mountain, JUMP and a bit where a guy tries kicking it down (I felt so bad for it XD)

BigDog can NOW THROW THINGS, In the video below, you can see the Robot throw a cinder block.. Goody!

Other projects that the Boston Dynamics team is working on include a robotic Cheetah (Want the youtube link? Let me know) , A man that can stand on his own legs (the video is of him climbing blocks, can you see his hand hold the wall for support? ).. There is one of him doing exercises, very funny

I think they also created a robotic snake, the sand flea and few others.. Well, you can always find a lot of cool videos showcasing these bots on youtube..

Edited October 6, 2016 by OpaQue (see edit history)

[Spyda 0]

Is it just me, or do these things creep you out? Seriously lol! I remember seeing a video of these things walking around the woods looking for missing people or something. They were working in cohesion with the police so they were able to have more people in the search of a missing body. Don't get me wrong.... I think these things are great and a very valuable resource! However.. they still creep me out haha.I think I've had bad dreams of those robots coming and invading the world! Scary stuff.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

This stuff is pretty cool. I actually just recently (a week or two ago) looked up the dog one again to show my siblings. I didn't realize that he can throw things now, which is a massive step forward. The others you linked to I didn't know about either.Another robot that's worth watching is the Honda ASIMO. I'm not sure when its last update was, but it exhibits human-like movements and can walk up stairs on two feet with no other support, run and other stuff. And supposedly it learns as well, in regards to communication and such.

[sheepdog 10]

Ok, I can see a purpose for big dog, but why on earth did our government waste a ton of dollars on developing a robotic squirel?

[sheepdog 10]

I have to agree at least a little with Spyda, it is just a little creepy. I think for the most part it's because in the video the legs of the thing almost look fur covered.

Seriously I think I'm more into low tech. With the exception of the heavy loads, a real dog could do exactly the same thing, and actually do a lot better job, they can cover ground a lot faster and if they were looking for something they have a nose to smell out lost or injured people or anything else someone trained them to sniff out.

 

But really, it is a pretty cool thing otherwise. I enjoyed watching it. But I'd still like to know why the government thinks we need robotic squirrels. If they send any of those around here they better make the outer covering out of Kevlar, because we'd be shooting them for sure.

Edited November 11, 2013 by sheepdog (see edit history)