Makers of infamous BigDog robot unveil human version - PETMAN (w/ video)

Makers of infamous BigDog robot unveil human version - PETMAN (w/ video)

www.physorg.com

Uh oh. Boston Dynamics, makers of the BigDog robot that can haul stuff around for the military has released a video of PETMAN, a human version that looks like a combination of the Terminator and a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica. Maybe even scarier is the fact that it walks like John Wayne; just enough attitude to let you know he's not someone to be messed with.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.bostondynamics.com

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Big Dog - Quadruped Robot
The "Big Dog" Robot & the K-Max copter
PETMAN robot to closely simulate soldiers (w/ Video)

Interestingly, the robot wasn’t made to scare anyone, or even to go into battle. It was designed to mimic the way human soldiers move so as to test army clothes for use in hazardous environments, i.e. chemical warfare. In addition to moving like a human being, it also simulates breathing and sweats when made to do a lot of work, like running and doing pushups. Because of its purpose, the engineers at Boston Dynamics haven’t yet completed a neck and head, which means PETMAN (Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin) has nothing on his shoulders but a blinking red light. And speaking of lights. He, or it, also has an eerie blue glow going on behind his chest plate. Not sure why, but it absolutely adds to the scariness of the big guy.

Well the androgynous robot now has a torso, and it's gait is rather impressive. While they say this is not something we should be considering as a combat robot; I can't help but think.... who knows?


www.physorg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Maxmars
*sigh* Oh, sure, it all STARTS out innocently enough. And then where do we end up?

testing only eh.. give them a bit more time and they'll have a combat model.. Looks like a plan for when they cant get anymore fools to sign up to be cannon fodder..

Excuse my language but thats f***ing terrifying!

Comming to a checkpoint near you soon

it is a small stones throw from Drones in the Sky to 'boots' on the ground.

maybe the aliens will show up just in time, and we can sit back and watch the robots and aliens duke it out.

Nice!!

"I've been thinking about getting metal legs, its a risky operation but I think it will be worth it."

This is awsome once they develop it i would like to buy one but they probably will only be use in the military. They will create a combat model.

This reminds me of something out of the Herbie Hancock "Rockit" video from way back...

video on Youtube

robot warrior

This is what I believe there really after

I don't care how "cutesy" they name these things, they should not be made. Not at this moment in time at any rate. Too many interests would turn these into weapons. We have enough of those thanks.

*cute Terminator theme*

I think the previous poster has a very valid point indeed. Millions starve and science just keeps on forging ahead with questionable technology that I cannot imagine will help humaity as a whole but I'm sure someone will beat me down for that opinion.

Now is it just me, or were others expecting the robot to stop and push the guy back using both hands when he was pushed of course? (To display its...accuracy or resilience I guess)

I was amazed to see the sheer accuracy of this. We've come a long way since that slow Japanese robot whose name I have already forgotten. Cool find OP!

Hopefully they are not planning on combining these two technologies, otherwise
You may just end up as a fuel source for those robots.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a3253d5cd170.jpg[/atsimg]
Military EATR Robot Could Feed On Dead Bodies On Battlefield

It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology -- and a 20th-century horror movie.

A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find -- grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.

to the terrified posters: don't worry too much...
Just watch the wires it has... it's not an autonomous thing, it has to be wired... which would suck to make cylons/terminators...
Yes, they could put batteries on it, but it would have a very limited lifetime... and consume far too much power to power it with sunlight or whatever abundant everywhere...
We can't store enough energy on a small-enough capacitor yet to make a such thing viable. Most smartphones can hardly stay unplugged without running out of power more than 1 week, and your smartphone must not sustain an heavy body and constantly adjusting its members to stay on his "feets". plus in combat situation, they would have to hold and manipulate heavy weapons and maybe other things... For that, a robot is much like an human... To hold some heavy stuff, you need to develop strength... and this require energy. more strength needed = more power needed = bigger battery capacity needed... and batteries takes space, and weight, so until we have irridium fuel cells or some other small and almost unlimited energy capacitors, there's no need to worry, it's just not doable (well, it is, but it would be really unefficient).
maybe in 30-40 years the power capacity won't be a problem anymore, but it's not a worrying issue yet. Anyway, I remember seeing this video some time ago, and I find it very interessting... If not appliable (yet) for military, it still opens many possibilities for exploration of hazardous areas or rescuing people trapped under tons of scrap (wired of course, it would still suck in autonomy in that application). Would be much more usefull than rescue dogs if you ask me...

Seriously?These are things are so not even close to being dangerous.
They're not sentient! Terminators are dangerous because they are sentient beings who can make decisions for themselves. These are upright walking rombas. They can't choose to just wipe out the population on a whim. They don't have that level of intelligence at the moment. That being said this is a huge advancement in the world of robotics and I think boston dynamics should be allowed for invention in the field of robotics.


People on here are really paranoid. You're acting like they built a replicant or that Petman has solved the Chinese Room.

plato.stanford.edu...

you create the machine that learns its going to everything it knows from us and humans are not known for our warm fuzzy feelings. fast forward a few years we'll have all kinds of robots with there own personalities doing everything we can do only there harder to maintain.

There's a funny alternate version of this on youtube. They spliced it to "Staying Alive".

This things walk is priceless.

Originally posted by LightSpeedDriver

Now is it just me, or were others expecting the robot to stop and push the guy back using both hands when he was pushed of course? (To display its...accuracy or resilience I guess)

*Raises hand*

Originally posted by SLAYER69

Hopefully they are not planning on combining these two technologies, otherwise
You may just end up as a fuel source for those robots.

Military EATR Robot Could Feed On Dead Bodies On Battlefield

It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology -- and a 20th-century horror movie.

A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find -- grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.

Oh dear god, we're screwed.

I'ma just go sit over here now.

Originally posted by Ghostfreak1
to the terrified posters: don't worry too much...
Just watch the wires it has... it's not an autonomous thing, it has to be wired... which would suck to make cylons/terminators...
Yes, they could put batteries on it, but it would have a very limited lifetime... and consume far too much power to power it with sunlight or whatever abundant everywhere...
We can't store enough energy on a small-enough capacitor yet to make a such thing viable. Most smartphones can hardly stay unplugged without running out of power more than 1 week, and your smartphone must not sustain an heavy body and constantly adjusting its members to stay on his "feets". plus in combat situation, they would have to hold and manipulate heavy weapons and maybe other things... For that, a robot is much like an human... To hold some heavy stuff, you need to develop strength... and this require energy. more strength needed = more power needed = bigger battery capacity needed... and batteries takes space, and weight, so until we have irridium fuel cells or some other small and almost unlimited energy capacitors, there's no need to worry, it's just not doable (well, it is, but it would be really unefficient).
maybe in 30-40 years the power capacity won't be a problem anymore, but it's not a worrying issue yet. Anyway, I remember seeing this video some time ago, and I find it very interessting... If not appliable (yet) for military, it still opens many possibilities for exploration of hazardous areas or rescuing people trapped under tons of scrap (wired of course, it would still suck in autonomy in that application). Would be much more usefull than rescue dogs if you ask me...

I appreciate you trying to calm the situation for people, but all this goes under the assumption there isn't secret technology we don't know about. I agree that specific robot is no threat, it's the idea and the advancement of it which is scary. Call me crazy(Hell, I call myself crazy all the time) but for all we know some high ranking government official is watching that video right now going "Hey! Thats what we could use those secret batteries for" or anything of the likes.

We don't really know whats out there as we are kept in the dark about so many things. I don't know much about Boston Dynamics but I think it would be safe to assume they don't currently have access to more resources than any number of companies/organizations we could list? Not to say they don't have plenty, I would assume they are government funded but not to the full extent some others may be. So if these people are capable of doing this, and this is what they are allowed to show us. How far along are the things we don't know of?

Even 50 years from now is a terrifying thought, I never wanted to have kids but maybe I will one day. I don't want to think of my children living in a world with scary human like robots.

While on the subject, people tend to say these things will only do what programmed to do. If you look at videogames these days you will see they put in AI that is capable of learning. Granted it learns from more things programmed into the game, but the AI will change its style of play based around the players style of play, learn from what you do etc. Assuming robots ended up like they are in movies, where we use them for tasks and information that ability to learn would be in them. Just like the games they would be programmed to learn off the person they are with.

That is bloody terrifying to me.