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Quadruped CHEETAH Robot To Outrun Any Human
cylonlover writes "Robots are faster than humans at a lot of things, but up until now running hasn't been one of them. That is set to change with robotics company Boston Dynamics recently awarded a contract by DARPA to design and build a quadraped CHEETAH robot that is faster than any human. The contract also includes the creation of an agile, bipedal humanoid robot. It's hard to say which one might ultimately be creepier."
Will it transform into a music cassette?
Can it transform into a micro tape cassette?
I have a strange suspicion this DARPA robot isn't going to have Asimov's laws integrated into it...
The wheel called and said "Uhm, so fucking what? I was outrunning humans before there was language"
I love how this is creepy, yet put wheels on it and it's normal. Legs? Creepy. Wheels? No big deal.
Tiger Blooded Bi-Winning Machine
Will it outrun a human on the open savannah or through an urban city? I know the TFA mentioned tight turns and immediate stop & go, but what about in a building, over a fence, through the neighbor's back yard, up the stairs, from one roof to the next? I'd really like to watch something like this outrun an urban freerunner.
It's called CHEETAH now, but when you refuse to burn down your house and destroy your contraband information, this technology will be much more useful in the mechanical hounds.
It slows down. A little.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
"They set a Slamhound on Turner's trail in New Delhi, slotted it to his pheromones and the color of his hair. It caught up with him on a street called Chandni Chauk and came scrambling for his rented BMW through a forest of bare brown legs and pedicab tires. Its core was a kilogram of recrystallized hexogene and flaked TNT.
He didn't see it coming. The last he saw of India was the pink stucco façade of a place called the Khush-Oil Hotel. "
-1 Knows Nothing About Robotics.
Hi, roboticist here. Let me just say 'citation needed' to pretty much everything the parent said. I'm not quite sure what a "sense of instability and correction mechanisms" is, but I'm guessing they mean "sensors and control systems", but I'm pretty sure dynamic stability, traction, motion sensing and control have little to do with conformal surface coverings. Yes, skin has important traction characteristics, and flesh has inherent compliance that is important in gait cycles, but skin has nothing to do with dynamic stability.
Further more, it is fallacious to say that researchers aren't developing skin. That's simply false - there are many benefits to synthetic skin to be derived from users of prosthetic appliances, both in contact mechanics and sensing. There have been some very novel products in that area... they just don't happen to apply to dynamic control of legged robots.
Given the parent's mention of Big Dog and the weight of mechanical structures, I'd like to point out that part of the work for cheetah includes exploring composite structures for legged robots that will decrease total weight and rotational inertia of the limbs - directly related to the maximum speed at which a legged robot can move. Cf. the sexy MIT cheetah pic here. Note the call-outs citing sensors, balance mechanisms, traction control, actuators and distinct lack of skin.
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
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As part of Mr. Lee's good neighbor policy, all Rat Things are programmed never to break the sound barrier in a populated area. But Fido's in too much of a hurry to worry about the good neighbor policy. Jack the sound barrier. Bring the noise.
My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
Lots of natural quadrupeds can outrun a human.
The question is can it outrun a real cheetah?
How about a real swallow?