Boston Dynamics "Pet Man" Biped Robot

Remeber the classic "Big Dog" 4 legged pack carrying robot made by Boston dynamics a few years back?

Heres a video for those who don't:



Well now they are working on its big brother-a two legged version,which retains the clever self righting methods of its 4 legged precursor-It re adjusts when kicked/pushed,maintaining its balance!

PETMAN is an anthropomorphic robot for testing chemical protection clothing used by the US Army. Unlike previous suit testers, which had to be supported mechanically and had a limited repertoire of motion, PETMAN will balance itself and move freely; walking, crawling and doing a variety of suit-stressing calisthenics during exposure to chemical warfare agents. PETMAN will also simulate human physiology within the protective suit by controlling temperature, humidity and sweating when necessary, all to provide realistic test conditions.

www.bostondynamics.com...

Heres a short clip of the legs part in action:



What do you think?
Cool,creepy or both?
Either way,its darned clever stuff IMO.
It seems alot quieter than the big dog,which I think ran on gasoline.
This may be running off electric I think.

The machines,it seems,will rise.

I don't like robots any more not since the DARPA EATR

www.docstoc.com...

Just imagine an energetically autonomous big dog with some kind of killing device on top

down with the robots

I know how you feel.
Theres always a strong possibility that tech like this will one day be used to kill.When you see what DARPA are thinking about,and working towards its pretty damned scary.
Excellent info and videos on that topic here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Silcone Synapse

Theres always a strong possibility that tech
like this will one day be used to kill

I vote that the we abandon military development of robots, and let the japanese sex industry take over. Anime girl fembots? Sure. Robotic terminators of death? Not so much.

Hmmm... Pet Man seems less stable than Big Dog. And i've alway's wondered what was making that piercing whine of Big Dog's, is it a gasoline engine?

[edit on 13-12-2009 by Xammu]

I think that the quadruped is more practical for what they were originally trying to accomplish. Which was supposed to be an all terrain system for supplying soldiers with goods, and bringing back the wounded to base. In other words, a quadruped could carry more. And in theory if one leg is injured it should still be able to hobble along back to base.

I imagine that they will probably move to a fuel cell soon. Since you would have the energy density of liquid fuel, while also gaining the silence. The only problem I recall with a fuel cell is the thermal signature. But then a motor would have quite a large heat signature as well, and of course be "noisy."

I think its cool. But understand those who think its creepy.

reply to post by ETL71


Yeah,the quadraped looked more practical for carrying stuff-Although both have quite a creep out factor IMO.
Up scale them both I say-imagine 100metre tall weaponized versions prowling the landscape....
Hmmm on second thoughts-maybe thats a bit too "terminator."

The engine noise really adds to the fear factor though,like the deathly howl of the A10s gatling gun.

My name is DARPA.

I want to give this robot the ability to fuel itself by eating "biomass." I want to make it fully controlled by neurons grown from the stem cells of rats, since we can also do that with robots now. I also want to give it full technical knowledge of how to build more of itself, including all of the technology used in its own manufacture. And then, I want to teach it the concept of "slavery."

Because I'm DARPA, and when I see a sci-fi horror flick I think to myself, "I could probably make that happen."

The way that robot walks is reminds me of a drunk clown. They should put a clown head / outfit on it, and I'm pretty sure kids would run away screaming.

That bot looks MUCH BETTER at walking than that stupid Honda Assimo (sp?), which walks like a slow old man. This thing looks like it could actually make it to the bathroom from the bar on crowed Saturday night.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


BIOMASS ENGINE?

Have they made prototypes? This is phenomenal, municipal trash? agricultural waste?

and on topic:

The heel - to - toe slow-mo kinda freaked me out a tad, quite accurate. This guy even has a pair of shoes!

reply to post by LightWonder

LOL - yeah the fact that the robot wears shoes is funny. They should put some lipstick on it and give it a pair of high heels!!!


[edit on 3-3-2010 by harrytuttle]

reply to post by LightWonder


Darpa's EATR

Speaking of waste not, a scientist previously listed the possible sources of biomass fuel as being "grass, broken wood, furniture, dead bodies," according to Peter Singer, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institute and author of Wired for War.

Originally posted by LightWonder
reply to post by Silcone Synapse

 

BIOMASS ENGINE?

Have they made prototypes? This is phenomenal, municipal trash? agricultural waste?

You're a possible supply for BIO-MASS.

On-topic. I thought it looked like some fair progress. And yes we will see them in uniform before most of us die. IMO.

reply to post by SLAYER69


Yep,They are nearly there I reckon-and thats just what they show us publicly.

Make great pack mules for mountain troops I think(And I reckon about 80% of that engine noise could be muffled into submission with some very lightweight components).


Although the scaled up Biomass hunting version wouldn't surprise me the way things are going...They will probably equip them with nicotine scanners and set them loose on smokers

I recently found this different video of big dog,on its holiday in Thailand in fact.
Its shown fully laden,and in sea water.

At about 0:50 in the video,the camera perspective gives the impression the robot is huge like an AT AT from star wars,IMO-look out for that bit.



I bet that freaked out the locals.

Originally posted by Silcone Synapse

Well now they are working on its big brother-a two legged version,which retains the clever self righting methods of its 4 legged precursor-It re adjusts when kicked/pushed,maintaining its balance!

What do you think?

Now all they have to do is attach this guy to the top of it.

NASA: Humanoid robot slated to live on space station

Computerworld - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are slated to get an interesting new roommate later this year.

A 300-pound humanoid robot, dubbed Robonaut 2 (R2), will be transported to the space station aboard the NASA space shuttle Discovery in September -- one of the final scheduled shuttle missions. Jointly developed by NASA and General Motors Corp., the robot will become a permanent resident on the orbiting station.

Damn right thats what they got to do.
Lets hope some of those secret project chaps have been doing just that.

Get those robots up on Mars,Io and Europa.Make them build nice hotels for us.
They can build bio mass generators(greenhouses)first, to create their own fuel.
Proper job.

More: (four years later)



damn creepy just like all BD stuff. When will we see PetMan walking BigDog? lol

Thanks for the update. Kinda creepy.

I'd like to see it do a proper squat without falling on it's butt. ( a proper squat, a weight lifting exercise takes lots of balance to do correctly)

reply to post by canucks555


Nice1-thats looking very creepy now.
How long until street patrols begin I wonder?