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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."
Let's see... mules are animals. How could a machine possibly be better than an animal?
A machine won't get spooked by gunfire
a machine won't start making mating calls that alert the enemy to your position
a machine won't take massive shits that a tracking dog could smell
a machine doesn't die if it gets thirsty - you can go get more fuel and come back to it a week later or a month later.
I can see a whole lot of applications where a live animal wouldn't be as useful. Perhaps we should get rid of all the motorcycle police and make them use horses, too?
I just don't know why anyone would ever call it a "pack mule" when its real name, "BigDog", is so much cooler.
Also, did anyone watch the movie of BigDog? It looks really creepy, actually. I guess I was subconsciously expecting to see, oh I don't know, a big robotic dog, maybe Bell from "Bell and Sebastion" with metal instead of fur. Intead BigDog looks more like something you would frantically blow away in Starship Troopers before it rips your head off with its long insect-like legs. If I had one, I think I'd want to attach something to it that looks like a little like a head, at least. When they kick it, and it moves its legs to keep from falling over, I squirm. It's like it's ALMOST alive, but not quite.
Mules, horses, camels, and others that I can't think of have been used since before recorded time. And they have always been a logistical nightmare, which is why they were replaced as soon as motorized vehicles became reliable enough.
A mule eats and drinks every day. It can carry its own food and water, but that means it carries a lot less of what you needed it to carry. Or you spend a significant portion of your day foraging, which means you aren't accomplishing your mission.
Gasoline has a very good energy density. A truck can easily carry the amount of fuel it needs to go 100 miles, with most of its payload available to you. Most of the load for a mule or horse to go 100 miles would be its own food and water. Plus, a mule eats even when you aren't moving. A truck doesn't.
Ships are the most efficient form of transportation, but can only go where there's water. Canals take time to build. Railroads are almost as efficient, but laying track is expensive, and the tracks are vulnerable. Trucks are less efficient, but roads are easier to build. So it comes down to logistic efficiency and infrastructure. An engine-powered walker needs the least infrastructure, while keeping most of the efficiency.
I think robotics is cool and all but anyone that thinks that making robots replace people is a good thing should read two stories.
t ml
Manna by Marshall Brain
http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
and more importantly The Machine Stops,by E. M. Forester, written in 1909 and extremely prophetic
http://brighton.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~prajlich/forster.h
This article rules. It shows that the Slashdot readership has grown quite diverse... as in diversely not nerds :-P
Since when do Slashdot readers feel the need to criticize large government agencies who fund R&D for building robots?
Jeez people. This thing is cool.
The production rate for animal mules can't simply be ramped up as easily as it could for the electromechanical kind. The feeding of an animal mule might be just as simple as for the mechanical kind, but it's much harder to get veterinarians to join the Army than to send someone through a three or even six month training course for repairing the mechanical kind. It's much easier to replace a mechanical leg, or carbureter in the field for the mechanical kind than replace a leg or a lung on the animal kind. You can cannibalize the mechanical kind for parts to repair others, all you can do with the mule is eat it (some people relish a good horse steak, I'm told. I don't know how mule would compare).
If I was going somewhere so remote that supplies and spare parts couldn't be at least air-dropped, an animal would make eminent sense. But very, very rarely does the Army send that many people to a place where they can't even get air drops. When they do, it usually means that the team must be so stealthy that neither kind would be suitable.
And remember, this is the Mk 0 mod 3 version. Somewhere around Mk 2 or Mk 3, they're going to have built-in GPS, and will be able to go where you send them all by themselves, possibly even be able to fend off the natives to keep them from stealing all the supplies. Which you never could trust the animal kind to do.
Finally, ask a mule skinner what "stubborn as a mule" means. The electro-mechanical kind might break down, or not understand, but it won't disagree with you.