Amazing......

YouTube - Boston Dynamics Big Dog (new video March 2008)

Yeah. And creepy...

I still say its a useless piece of technology, I'm sorry but first of all its as noisy as hell and second of all is very slow. Wheeled vehicles are still king, and DARPA is just wasting money funding such a project. I mean its like re-creating the donkey, when its obvious the original design is cheaper and far more advance than what humans are able to achieve just yet. Or the horse for that matter.

Both of which haven't been used by the US military in quiet some time. Even if they are far more capable than this robot. Sure, doing such a project just for the sake to advance robotics is enough of a reason to support this project but that isn't what the developers or DARPA has in mind. I just don't see this going anywhere or being any practical use.

Saw this a little while ago when it made front page of Digg, and I've gotta say, it's pretty creepy since it behaves so much like a real animal.

Speed, the reason it's so loud is because it's using a combustion engine. We just need serious battery improvements and it'll be real quiet.

I personally think this is a good project as it has great uses for places that are not accessible by wheeled vehicles or contain obstacles along the path, such as in a war zone. Once quieted down, this would make for a great way to deliver supplies to the front lines.

Bah, it'd be cheaper to put a microchip in donkey's head and control them remote control. As for the gas powered motor, I do understand why its so noisy as heck but I have to admit it annoys me. As for batteries, batteries have a long ways to go yet and I doubt they'd be able to provide the same amount of power. What can I say, I'm skeptical it'll have any real world use.

Quite cool... and it could beat anyone in a Silly Walking Contest...

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Wow, that's a seriously mean machine.

Saying it has no application is like saying the personal computer has no future or that no one will need more than 1 Mb and other such funny sayings people have gotten themselves into

From what I recall of the robotics coursework that I did, simulating human/animal style locomotion is one of the biggest challenges in the field. I bet that took some serious work to get going.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

If that's real, wow.

Imagine if they could give it eyes!

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When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

Wheeled vehicles have some serious problems with the kind of terrain this machine can negotiate with apparent ease.

Remotely piloted, equipped with cameras, especially with IR cameras to spot body heat, this could do recon work in dangerous areas, looking for booby traps or ambushes without risking life. It even looks robust enough to kick down doors and go inside buildings to check them out.

Even that noise could be a plus if it got someone preparing an ambush to open fire on a machine. I imagine a dozen of these coming down several streets at once would prove pretty unnerving to people expecting human soldiers.

I could see where the capabilities of such a machine would prove valuable, especially in a rubble strewn urban combat area.

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“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address

lots of potential, not just military but search and rescue in the mountians, buildings etc.
Showed it to my 3 yo grddaughter, I haven't heard her laugh so hard in along time, she wants to ride the horsey.

Not to mention, of course, that wheels could just be put on it

Did I mention how incredibly creepy that thing looks?

It's the whole uncanny valley thing. It almost looks like a living thing so it's disturbing.

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During the journey we commonly forget its goal. Almost every profession is chosen as a means to an end but continued as an end in itself. Forgetting our objectives is the most frequent act of stupidity.
-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Wanderer and his Shadow

All good socialists have villas in Southern France. That's not the point.
-Eurosocialist

Sounds like a reasonable explanation. Impressive recovery, btw, when the guy kicks it in the side...