Friday, March 21, 2008

The Amazing Quadruped Robot

An engineering friend brought my attention to a video so amazing that I just had to share it.

Imagine a robot that can tackle challenging terrain like rocky paths, icy roads, leafy or snow-covered hills, and even a haphazard pile of concrete blocks. In places where you would slip and probably fall, the robot seems to always manage to regain its balance. Even if you give it a nice big kick in the side.

Sound like science fiction?

Meet Boston Dynamics' BigDog. As you will see in the video below, this machine can do all this and more -- while carrying a load of over 300 lbs!

(Image from Boston Dynamics website)


While watching this video, I was completely in awe. The sensors this machine must have... it's just mind-boggling. The way that it recovers from loss of balance is nothing short of impressive.

The video also gave me a bit of a creepy feeling. This robot could be a star in the next big sci-fi horror movie!

Without further ado, meet BigDog:

2 comments:

  1. The idea is very similar there, and I find these creatures even more amazing:

    http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/162

    ReplyDelete
  2. Also very impressive, though for different reasons. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete

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