Build a Robot out of a Car?

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Posted by ryuzaki0 on Friday March 12, 2004 @02:41PM from the why-the-heck-not dept.

SomeRobotGuy writes "A researcher in the U.K. is in the process of building an autonomous biped robot out of a Mini Cooper r50. Its functions are controlled by six computers running RTLinux and it's powered by an internal combustion engine. And the thing's not tiny, at over 10 feet tall! The site includes videos showing some impressive results."

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FAKE! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-12 15:04 · Score: 5, Informative

Watch the "Battery Test" video, if that isn't CGI then I'm a monkey's uncle.
1. Re:FAKE! by sakusha · 2004-03-12 15:32 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  You're right, it's a dead giveaway. Notice the guy holding the clipboard, the lighting is camera left since the clipboard casts a shadow on his chest. But the fake CG shadows from the "robot" indicate the model was lit from the camera upper right. And none of the background objects (i.e. the cart) casts shadows anywhere near as distinct as the "robot."
  Come on fakers, don't you know that your lighting has to be consistent between composited layers?
This would be cooler if... by rasafras · 2004-03-12 15:29 · Score: 4, Informative

...it were real. This is basically a less cool version of the VW bug transformer video, which can be found here (sorry about the format). The creator of the video has an interview here, though the original site is down.

I'm surprised this slipped through, editors.

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Re:It's a nice bit of CG, it might be from MINI by RajivSLK · 2004-03-12 15:38 · Score: 5, Informative

It seems that it is advertising.

A whois lookup on r50rd.co.uk returns the address:

6 darblay street
london
W1V 8DM
GB

A quick search for this address on Google reveals:

Martyn Gould Productions, 6 D'Arblay St, London, W1F 8DN, UK

On a page titled: "Film and Television - Post Production, Commercials"
Updated version by cgenman · 2004-03-12 17:02 · Score: 4, Informative

Actually, the personal website of the author has a cleaned up, and significantly larger, version available here.

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The ______ Agenda
mirror by xWh3lPx · 2004-03-12 18:38 · Score: 5, Informative

managed to mirror it here.
Mirror by cgenman · 2004-03-12 23:01 · Score: 5, Informative

Another poster has put up a mirror, though nobody seems to have noticed the original comment.

The mirror is available here.

The page doesn't load animations properly in Opera, and relies upon Quicktime to display the Mpegs. It might work in Mozilla, but it might not.

And again, adulations aplenty to xWh3lPx for the mirror.

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The ______ Agenda