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Boston Dynamics' SpotMini Is All Electric, Agile, and Has A Capable Face-Arm (ieee.org)
An anonymous reader writes: Boston Dynamics has shown the world their "fun-sizeified version of their Spot quadruped," the SpotMini robot. It's a quiet, all electric machine that features a googley-eyed face-arm. IEEE Spectrum notes some observations made from watching their YouTube video. First of all, the SpotMini appears to be waterproof and doesn't rely on hydraulics like the other more powerful robots of theirs. The SpotMini is likely operated by a human, and is not autonomous, though the self-righting could be an autonomous behavior. The video appears to show two separate versions of the SpotMini: an undressed and dressed variant (it's hard to tell if the "dressed" variant features differing components/abilities). There is a MultiSense S7 video camera on the front, some other camera-based vision system on the front, a butt-mounted Velodyne VLP-16 system, and what may be a small camera on the face-arm's mouth. One particularly noteworthy observation is that during much of the video, the SpotMini is traversing through a house. In other Boston Dynamics demo videos, the robots are outside. The author of the report says, "[...] it wouldn't surprise me if we're looking at an attempt to make an (relatively) affordable robot that can do practical things for people who aren't in the military."
My ceaselessly spinning fan could be an autonomous behavior.
If you go into Harlem, it's all chubby white dudes with **thick** beards and black glasses.
Harlem used to be a black neighborhood, but now it's a white neighborhood for people with thick beards and black glasses.
Why do they wear a uniform? Thick beards and black glasses.
Thick beards and black glasses.
Thick beards and black glasses.
Thick beards and black glasses.
but now that the company is part of Google, maybe the reason is just âoebecause we can, and itâ(TM)s cool.â
Not exactly hacker behavior is it?
Err ... what?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I think it needs a second neck. With both necks starting from a more shoulder like joint.
OK... I know what I'm having nightmares about tonight.
Just the use of the word "face-arm" was creepy and should have been a hint, but I went ahead and watched it dance for a few minutes to let it really sink in.
(Joking aside, that looks like a crazy fun project to work on!)
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
I will sleep soundly tonight knowing that our new robotic dog overlords can be foiled by a simple banana peel on the floor. =p
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
It's seriously like Alien and Terminator all rolled up into one :)
I can only imagine these being combined with weaponry and used against enemy-combatants/protestors/inconvenients more effectively than a SWAT team in about 5-10 years.
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OK... I know what I'm having nightmares about tonight.
Just the use of the word "face-arm" was creepy and should have been a hint, but I went ahead and watched it dance for a few minutes to let it really sink in.
(Joking aside, that looks like a crazy fun project to work on!)
That video was disturbing - in a few ways - for me.
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There's a fire hydrant right there in the frame and . . . nothing?
Boston Dynamics' SpotMini Is All Electric, Agile, and Has A Capable Face-Arm
You know what one word would've made that headline 20x clearer?
"Robot."
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
So that I can send my vive to someone in another country so that they can control the robot and do the cleaning in my house?
of doing a face-palm with it's face-arm?
But also Googley-eyed.
http://larryniven.net/puppeteer/pupbod.shtml