WOW!! A Robot Army Mule Funded By DARPA!! Check This Out!

That was really cool! I especially liked what it could do on ice!
Impressive!

i was pretty impressed. i can see us 20 years from now. the earth will be overrun with these things and they will have become autonomous and bloodthirsty. blood! BLOOD!!

we need to act now to develop anti-killer-creepy-mechanical-mule weapons. maybe we could get DARPA funding...

The old fashion piston engine is very noisy, but if it is coming into service, it will for sure driven by an nuclear battery.

I wouldn't mind having one of these when I have to go work on my fences in the field.

It's hard to carry enough tools and supplies by myself. I'd love to just load up the mule and have it follow me around with all my stuff.

It would sure beat the heck out of carrying it myself.

All that we would need to develop in order to counter anything like these would some sort of ranged electric gun to send tons of volts into its systems and make it short circuit.
Heck, I would like to see some electric grenades starting to be developed if these ever go haywire or captured by enemy units.

Also, another thing this could used for is scouting and such in our space exploration programs rather than just relying on wheels all the time. Some how though, this seems to remind me of the AT-AT from Star Wars Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. Make a huge version of this thing with mounted guns and you have a walking death machine.

Darpa is funding 5 or 6 teams to program the movement of the dog. There is one at MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and another at The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC); not sure where the other are. The teams compete every few months on a course using a smaller version of the robot.

I am just down the road from the IHMC and I have a close friend that programs movement for this dog.

If you post specific questions regarding its coding I may be able to get you answers.

I do know that the robot they are programming does not have any touch sensors and runs blind on roll, pitch, yaw from three gyroscopes.

Sri Oracle

[edit on 4-4-2008 by Sri Oracle]

This has to be one of the coolest things I've seen since...well...since that time I came home and found that some peanut butter had gotten all over my chocolate bars!

It may not be as delicious, but damn if I can't taste the possibilities for applying these things to the space exploration program, search and rescue, or even as an aid to the blind!

Watching this thing balance itself out on rough terrain, when less than a decade ago we couldn't even teach a robot to walk in a straight line is damn impressive.

Also kinda creepy though, since you know the first thing it will be applied to is military use, just like all good technology. The image of something like this chasing after me with a machine gun or flame-thrower strapped to its back makes me wanna hide under the covers and cry like a little girl.

Excellent post.

Originally posted by Sleuth
I would like to hear from the military types in this forum regarding their opinions on the amount of noise this monster creates. Would you really want something that draws that kind of attention anywhere near you in a combat situation?

I edit to ask, what exactly is making all that noise?

[edit on 4/4/08 by Sleuth]

I would say the noise is probably from the power source. Because on the clips showing it indoors hooked up to a stationary power source its very silent, but when mobile in the outdoors that noise is apparent.

reply to post by mikesingh


amzing!! one day they will be doing thin on two legs...

thanks for sharing

Originally posted by RandomThought

Originally posted by Sleuth
I would like to hear from the military types in this forum regarding their opinions on the amount of noise this monster creates. Would you really want something that draws that kind of attention anywhere near you in a combat situation?

I edit to ask, what exactly is making all that noise?

[edit on 4/4/08 by Sleuth]

I would say the noise is probably from the power source. Because on the clips showing it indoors hooked up to a stationary power source its very silent, but when mobile in the outdoors that noise is apparent.

Ye, its clearly the noise of an internal combustion engine, but with the current development of electric batteries it will be walking silently in no time...

Originally posted by derfred33
clearly the noise of an internal combustion engine

That thing sounds pretty weird for an ICE, but I'll take your word for it. Granted, the thing is amazing in its ability to recover its footing, but it's still creepy as heck.

the first video is amazing, buty then during the scene where they slow mo it slipping on the ice, it looked like a coule guys under thee, I was laughing. I watched it again, and figured it wasn't, just buy the way the legs were moving.

But the Big dog Beta, now thats two humans . Thanks you for posting what i thought I had seen in the slow mo ice footage. Tea the real thing, is for real. But the spoof is classic. Especially because I was wondering if that's what I was looking at.

Anyways, if I saw that I think I'd run. Although it's be alot more frightening if it didn't have the high-pitched engine noise. Replace that with some grunts and groans, and some drool. definiteley hook it up with some firepower too. Retractable Chainsaw for a tounge for cutting through brush, and the occassional curious bad guy, or little kid. JUST kidding (about the little kid part).

Great stuff though.

Originally posted by Sleuth
I would like to hear from the military types in this forum regarding their opinions on the amount of noise this monster creates. Would you really want something that draws that kind of attention anywhere near you in a combat situation?

Of course, it would be a problem in a live combat sit. I mean you can't have a 'buzzer' giving out your position. But in a peace time sit where troops have been deployed in permanent defended localities for a number of years, some in eye ball to eye ball contact with the adversary, there is no problem. So the noise doesn't matter in this situation!

As you asked, what the heck is all the noise about? Yes, it should have been outfitted with a silencer, what?

reply to post by Odessy


Hell's bells! Now how come I didn't come across that? OK. The beer is on me!!

Cheers!

I don't know. That thing looks like some insect that came out of a bad scifi movie. One question, if it looses a hoof or something, can we shoot it and put it out of it's misery?

I think if I was hunkering out in the woods hiding from some enemy, the last thing I would want is some mechanical mule that doesn't know when to stop making noise.

Model T-negative-1000.

Meysincere hope is that it is wepoenized to support killing islamic jihadists in :any place" Worldwide . oh, forgot the US is the problem, yea right, suckass problem un solvers,,,

That is absolutely amazing technology!!! I always thought the japanese are the leaders in robotics. That really blowed my mind.

There is propably a top-secret and more advanced version of this. A combat robot or something like this. How far are they really with AI?

In my company we are working with massive. Its the most advanced crowd simulation tool in the world. It is really amazing how the software can handle the agents with fuzzy logic. They also use it now for robotics.

The massive software technology is a base for something like this.

Massive Software

check it out!

I really love advanced technology stuff! Keep on posting cool things Mike!

Star and flag for you mike!!!

[edit on 5-4-2008 by allMIGHTY]

Hey, if you have not seen this... here is the LittleDog, Boston Dynamic's little brother robot:

www.disclose.tv...

Even creepier than the big one

This particular robot has been mentioned here:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

DARPA has been working on the autonomous robot problem for many years. Anybody recall an autonomous vehicle challenge that DARPA hosts yearly? I seem to recall that the team with a VW Tourag won last year.

Popular Mechanics featured military robot projects in their March issue of this year- great informative article for those that are interested.

Even though there have already been armed ground robots already deployed to combat zones, one has yet to make a kill, or even fire a shot.

UAV's are another story altogether- now THAT'S some scary sh*&. Death from above... yeah.

Somebody mentioned that nuclear batteries would be used in a production model. I beg that this poster put on their "thinking cap". This is an impossibility for countless reasons, not the least of which is possible capture of said batteries by hostiles.

They will most likely be powered by fuel cells, or even something else that "doesn't yet exist". Read: EM Generators or wireless transmission.

Good thread Mike, as usual!

Originally posted by Terrapop
Hey, if you have not seen this... here is the LittleDog, Boston Dynamic's little brother robot:

www.disclose.tv...

Even creepier than the big one

That's the one my friend programs. You'll note there are no ankle joints. The new version has ankles, but they are springy rather than programmable. The next version will be programmable; actuated and touch sensitive. They are trying to iron out 4 legged locomotion by major muscle group first. They have the little guy up to just about (scale) human walking speed... it is totally autonomous the only user controlled input once the robot is set free is destination.