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

Intelligence?

[MrNaz]

I, for one, welcome out new robotic pack mule overlords.

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

[MustardMan]

I'm used to getting modded down on /.

Valid points have no place in this land.

I actually find it rather amusing that everyone is jumping down my throat for the unitless "one in two". Of course I know that one in two is unitless - however, in the US it would generally be worded differently, and indeed the placement in the sentence could be interpreted as the navigable slope being better than what could be hanlded by one out of every two people, for example. The wording is awkward and unnecessary, when there are much easier ways to say the same thing.

My gripe about units was the "slope of 35", which the "editors" didn't bother to check, and the submitter so lazily copy and pasted from TFA that it lost the units and thus the meaning. The guy calling me fucktard actually interpreted the statement from the summary incorrectly, proving my point that the summary needed units. But of course, like usual, a LOT of people on /. don't get the point. I'd fail them, too ;)