Robotic 'Pack Mule' with Impressive Reflexes

moon_monkey writes "New Scientist has a story about a nimble, four-legged robot that can recover its balance even after being given a hefty kick." From the article: "The project is sponsored by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), who want the robotic pack mule to assist soldiers in terrain too tough for vehicles. Ground-based soldiers often need to carry 40 kilograms of equipment. Raibert says the latest version of BigDog can handle slopes of 35 - a steeper gradient than one in two. The hydraulics are driven by a two-stroke single-cylinder petrol engine, and it can carry over 40 kg, about 30% of its bodyweight. The robot can follow a simple path on its own, or can be remotely controlled."

Comments

Why not just use ... a live mule?

[jimmyhat3939]

Why is this better than just a mule? Let's see... Mules eat plants and grasses found naturally in the area. The electronic mule requires electricity. Great if you're in a city in the USA. Bad if you're in terrain thats "too tough for vehicles".

Re:Why not just use ... a live mule?

[MustardMan]

a - an engine can be turned off at will, and a mule cannot.

b - this is a proof of concept demonstrating the technology. the key here is that it can navigate rough terrain and has good balance. The source of rotational energy is hardly important at this point.

Sand isn't exactly friendly to the lungs of an animal, either, and at least when the robot dies you have a chance of repairing it. Good luck repairing your dead mule.

Re:Why not just use ... a live mule?

[Fluffy the attack ki]

Perhaps we should get rid of all the horse police instead, make them use motorcycles... Or we could continue to use the best transportation for the task at hand.

First: Yes, an untrained mule may be spooked be gunfire. On the other hand people have been training horses to go into battle for thousands years. Worst case scenario your packmule runs from behind cover and gets shot (assuming the enemy would bother shooting at fleeing livestock in the middle of a fight).

Second: Mating calls from a mule? Mules are sterile, do they even make mating calls? Better question: Do they make mating calls LOUDER THAN A 2-STROKE ENGINE?!?

Third: Poop stinks, gotta give you that. So does gasoline though. Don't know enough about tracking dogs, their abilities, or their use in militaries around the world to guess how much of an issue this is.

Fourth: If the gas tank runs dry the machine DOES TOO die. The fact that you can send out a retrieval team later to recover it is of little help to the people in the group it was attached to. This thing is designed to operate in areas where conventional ground vehicles can't go, which means no gas trucks go there either. Also, if your robot mule dies for some reason you can't cook and eat it.

Re:Why not just use ... a live mule?

[SenatorOrrinHatch]

Probably because you cant mount sensors and guns on a live mule and control its every action from the safety and comfort of Ft. Livingroom, plus living things are normally scared of huge explosions and imminent death. Also, live mules look pretty bad all shot the fuck up, but nobody gives 2 shits about some twisted metal.

Re:Why not just use ... a live mule?

[kfg]

Mules require feeding, housing, care and medical attention even when they are not being used. The people who provide this care require feeding, housing, care, medical attention and money even when the mule is not being used. Given our petrol based way of doing everything (like growing oats) all of this actually means that a mule burns more petrol over its useful life than a machine does, because it's burning it 24/7.

Mules are also notoriously, well, mulish.

The car did not replace the horse because it was more luxurious. At the the time it was anything but. It replaced the horse because it was less expensive to purchase and own, as well as far less trouble.

The primary problem with this device is, however, what you allude to. It can run out of gas. We're not talking about Patton's tank column here. We're talking about an ordinary dogface soldier, a grunt, becoming dependant on petrol to carry his pack for him

Join the Army. Learn to be a wuss.

I'm not sure this is a good tactic just at a time when wars are becoming increasingly about petrol, because it's in short supply. The Nez Perce might well have ground our modern army to a halt and made good their escape to Canada.

KFG

Hefty Kick?

[Transcendent]

...a nimble, four-legged robot that can recover its balance even after being given a hefty kick... The hydraulics are driven by a two-stroke single-cylinder petrol engine, and it can carry over 40 kg, about 30% of its bodyweight.

Who's the brute who kicked that robot?

Cost comparison?

[jcr]

I'd just like to know how this gadget compares in price to a real pack mule. If our soldiers need mules, why not, oh.... USE SOME REAL MULES?

-jcr

Re:Cost comparison?

[_Sharp'r_]

The advantages are pretty easy to see.

Pack mules need to be fed even if you are just storing them in a camp. This thing can be packed tight in a box until you need it, then you just feed it the same gas that you feed your other vehicles. You're already shipping gas, but you aren't shipping much mule food to the camp. Sure, one the move a mule can eat some grass, but that becomes harder in the middle of the desert or while being shipped across the ocean.

Also, it's much harder to resupply a group under dangerous conditions with mules being led than it is with something you can remote control a group of across that same dangerous territory. As far as weight ratios, some of them can carry gas for the others, while those others carry what you want delivered. It's the same system trucks use.

Plus, I imagine (based on previous darpa results) these will end up quite a bit faster than mules are.

Picture remote controlled, locally autonomous truck convoys dropping these things off for the "last mile" delivery to the troops in the hills and you'll see where all this is going.

Of course, eventually they'll also use them for surveilance placements and then remote controlled combat.

Looking Real

[hhawk]

The most interesting thing is the "natural" looking motion of the "legs". At first I thought it was two guys up in some custom faking it as a robot! They are so natural!

The video delivers what is promised but notice that when it does go up that steep hill there is no 40+ kg of weight on it...

It also seems a bit to loud and well, in need of some body armor.

Re:its BigDog, not "pack mule"

[klack]

I also felt it was creepy. I think we just reached the Uncanny Valley.

Re:If you were my student, I'd fail you

[modecx]

Maybe you would have preferred it if they said "The robot can climb hills with a slope of approximately Pi/5!", so everyone who didn't take trig (and some who did) can stare blankly and say "wtf?"

Did I hear a "yay" for dimensionless units? Oh, yes, I think I did.

Let's see here...

[Cerebus]

A 1,200 lb mule can carry up to 240 lbs of pack, eats grasses found nearly everywhere, will be reasonably quiet when well-treated, is smart enough not to walk off a cliff when the mule skinner isn't paying the best of attention, and will cost you under US$2000 per head. In addition, we know mules can be combat-trained, as mule trains were used to pull artillery on battlefields, and when worse comes to worst, you can eat it.

This thing can carry a bit more, eats gasoline, makes as much noise as a gas turbine, will happily stroll into harm's way, and will likely cost on the order of a luxury car per unit. While there will be no training needed, when it breaks down it's just so much spare parts.

Part of the reason for wanting something that can go anywhere is that the trucks you currently have *can't*. So how are you going to refuel the mechanical mule? Can this thing pack enough spare fuel *and* have enough capacity left to be useful?

I think I'll stick with the mule.

Beer mule

[jimmydevice]

Finally, something that can carry a full keg, across abusive terrain and not fall down in a druken stupor. I see a great future renting these for senior class keggers. Maybe integrate the walker into the keg, So if the cops show up, and a little AI ( lots of shouting and the words "freeze assholes" ) it can run and hide in the forest with all the other kiddies.

Jim.

Low parts count

[cheros]

Think of field servicability. A humble 2 stroke is about the simplest engine you can put in the field (apart froma diesel, but that's a different ballgame altogether). A 2 stroke has few parts (which also means less bits that can go wrong) and carrying spares is thus easy. I'm not sure if the power output to weight ratio is better as well, if I remember well from my motorcycle days that is pretty much a given too but that's not quite as scientific as I'd like ;-).

Having said that, it's only a theory. Maybe they only had a grasmower to work with, having spend all teh money on *SERIOUSLY* good hydraulic actuators. It's seriously weird to watch this thing - impressive, but weird ..

Re:tracks?

[John Hasler]

> The sense of balance is impressive, but if you don't have all your
> weight mounted so high it becomes less of an issue.

I guess that must be why horses, deer, antelope, etc. all have such short legs.