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"Bear" Robot to Rescue Wounded Troops
Jim Hall writes "The US military is developing a robot with a teddy bear head to help carry injured soldiers out of combat. The "friendly appearance" of the robot is designed to put the wounded at ease. The 6ft tall Bear can cross bumpy ground without toppling thanks to a combination of gyroscopes and computer controlled motors to maintain balance. It is expected to be ready for testing within five years. 'It is also narrow enough to squeeze through doorways, but can lift 135kg (500 lbs.) with its hydraulic arms in a single smooth movement, to avoid causing pain to wounded soldiers. While the existing prototype slides its arms under its burden like a forklift, future versions will be fitted with manoeuvrable hands to gently scoop up casualties. The Bear is controlled remotely and has cameras and microphones through which an operator sees and hears. It can even tackle stairs while carrying a human-sized dummy.'"
Park rangers report a rash of picnic basket thefts by large robotic creatures with teddy bear heads.
Aye, Boo Boo?
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
I can see the news headline now.
... what! ... no! get away! ... AAAARRRRRRGGGGH!! (splat) (rend) (growl) ...
So long as it works with the new Hello Kitty Laptop to run it remotely, sounds like a plan.
I for one welcome our
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
...it's just so cute! Forget more bullets, we'll just disarm our opponents with cuteness from now on.
It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
...Bears are evil killing machines. I can't want to see Stephen Colbert's take on this story.
Yeah, because if I'm wounded, in pain, drifting in and out of consciousness, being picked up by a 6-ft robot bear with hydraulic arms will be so soothing. The teddy-bear head is just the thing.
Full Metal Panic Fumoffu time.
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
I'm glad they settled on the "bear" look then. Now that that hurdle has been overcome, the only other matter, of designing and building a functional, reliable semi-autonomous bipedal robot, should be trivial.
All we'd need then would be a well-trained team of people to recover damaged robots. If only we could think of a way to make them look non-threatening, so that enemy robots would know not to shoot at them...
Or make it look like a wheeled upside down trashcan with a gun ... and have it yell "Exterminate!".
[Insert pithy quote here]
Obviously, NASA did the metric to English units conversion for this.
The obvious solution, and the one that will put soldiers the most at ease, is to build a robot with an ample set of breasts.
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