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Boston Dynamics Is Gearing Up To Produce Thousands of Robot Dogs (fortune.com)

Posted by msmash on from the they-are-coming dept.

Boston Dynamics, maker of uncannily agile robots, is poised to bring its first commercial product to market -- a small, dog-like robot called the SpotMini. From a report: The launch was announced in May, and founder Marc Raibert recently said that by July of next year, Boston Dynamics will be producing the SpotMini at the rate of around 1,000 units per year. The broader goal, as reported by Inverse, is to create a flexible platform for a variety of applications. According to Raibert, SpotMini is currently being tested for use in construction, delivery, security, and home assistance applications. The SpotMini moves with the same weirdly smooth confidence as previous experimental Boston Dynamics robots with names like Cheetah, BigDog, and Spot.

43 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory Kent Brockman by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 3, Insightful

    One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them.
    I, for one, welcome our new robot dogs overlords.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  2. Re:Fahrenheit 451... by Presence+Eternal · · Score: 1

    I'm not an expert in emp, but I'd imagine robots are easy to harden against anything sub-nuclear.

    As for arming these, I'd worry more about wal-mart level drones with dynamite strapped to them. I'm frankly astonished it hasn't happened yet. Or has it and no one reported on it?

  3. Great ... by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh great; now dog owners will all say

    "Oh, don't worry, my dog doesn't bite ... or go ruthless terminator and exterminate mankind. Not my little sweetie kins!"

  4. Re:The CDC says almost 800k people... by Presence+Eternal · · Score: 1

    I want to get a robot girlfriend for similar reasons.

  5. Re:Fahrenheit 451... by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 4, Funny

    I would be more concerned about the thoughtless owners who walk them, letting them drop little ones and zeroes all over our sidewalks.

  6. Tagged article "metalhead" by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2

    And now the circle is complete...

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    1. Re:Tagged article "metalhead" by jschultz410 · · Score: 1

      My thought exactly. It's like BD is rushing as fast as possible to implement all of the horror sci-fi stories of the last forty years.

  7. Re:Fahrenheit 451... by RandomFactor · · Score: 1

    This is worse then you think and needs to be stopped.

    The 1s are dangerous. Very hard to see and they can go right through a shoe. Best case you wind up with a trip to the doctor to get a stupid tetanus shot just from walking down the sidewalk.

    Also dangerous even if you do collect them properly and put them in the trash. Someone else in the family goes to push down on the trash and pulls back a hand that looks like a pincushion.

    --
    --- Mercutio was right.
  8. Re:Fahrenheit 451... by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

    If you can come up with a cheap and effective EMP cannon, I'm sure you'll make a bundle selling the design. The military, law enforcement and airports are very interested in something to knock out drones at range.

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  9. Re:Fahrenheit 451... by zmooc · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It has been done several times but is really difficult to Google.

    Nevertheless, here's one report: https://www.scmp.com/news/worl...

    --
    0x or or snor perron?!
  10. Re: Fahrenheit 451... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    You need more than 20 grams of explosive to do some harm

    If it's anti-personnel, 20 grams and an explosively formed projectile are probably more than enough.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  11. Re:Fahrenheit 451... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Don't worry, his bark is worse than his byte."

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  12. Re:The CDC says almost 800k people... by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

    a year have to seek medical attention after a dog bite so replacing those animals with things that won't attack us will really help with safety and medical costs.

    Nasty folks take pleasant tempered dogs, and train them to become vicious killing beasts. For shits & giggles.

    I'm guessing that your average drug dealer, pimp or NFL star will do the same with their robot dogs.

    Plus, the less dog poop on sidewalks and in parks would be nice. I live in Seattle, and the amount of dog poop here is just terrible.

    Shame on you, 1%er! For calling the homeless dog poop!

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  13. more bad links from msmash by swell · · Score: 3, Informative

    Two links- one to Fortune, one to Slashdot. Fortune rarely works for me, but right there in the article is a link to a previous, better story from Inverse, a more interesting publisher. Why Fortune and not the better article? Kickbacks?

    Where are the Youtube links? Perhaps you thought they would be superfluous in a story about clever robots?
    Inverse article: https://www.inverse.com/articl...
    Cheetah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
    Boston Dynamics: https://www.youtube.com/channe...

    --
    ...omphaloskepsis often...
  14. well the K9 cops should use there union to keep do by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    well the K9 cops should use there union to keep the dogs they have now!

  15. Re:The CDC says almost 800k people... by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    www.realdoll.com

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  16. Re:Woof by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

    You don't, but your car does.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  17. Re:The CDC says almost 800k people... by sheramil · · Score: 1

    I want to get a robot girlfriend for similar reasons.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxHXa0t3sn0

    "Oh!
    Oh, how I want you
    I really really want you
    I need your love to guide my way
    Oh! oh! oh!
    Oh, how I need you
    I really really need you
    Don't try to bark
    And I'll take you to the park
    Arf! arf! arf!"

  18. Re:Fahrenheit 451... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

    Nah, put the design on Bittorrent -- you might not make money, but you'll do the world a favor by equalizing governments and insurgents worldwide. What better gift to give to the world than the opportunity for people to destroy surveillance states and render modern weapons impotent?

  19. Security? by jetkust · · Score: 1

    Isn't this exactly what we don't want it to do?

  20. Dark Mirror - Metal Head by FoolishBluntman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Has no one watched this episode of Dark Mirror on Netflix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
    Guys (Boston Dynamics) this can't end well.

    1. Re: Dark Mirror - Metal Head by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The notion of AI in this style is nothing more than fantasy. AI of the level needed to achieve the behaviors in that episode precludes the dystopian "flaws" required for such a scenario to come about.

      Just like the terminator robots, Skynet, and innumerable half-assed incarnations of evil AI in pop fiction. It's no lie a danger than a zombie apocalypse - remotely plausible, but not really.

      Current technologies could produce hunter killer robots, but it would require teams of engineers years of development and billions of dollars to approach the Black Mirror level of inventiveness and adaptation in killing people. And there would inevitably be exploitable bugs.

      The automated factory episode from Electric Dreams is orders of magnitude more plausible, but even it suffers from the flawed notion that intelligence is necessarily an unknowable black box system, destined to inflict negative consequences through its use.

      A superintelligence explosion presents far more dangerous possibilities than rogue robots, and rogue robots need at least human level intelligence to present an existential threat. Human level machine intelligence will by its existence initiate an intelligence explosion, ergo Spotmini is extremely unlikely to present any sort of threat to humanity.

    2. Re: Dark Mirror - Metal Head by Peter+P+Peters · · Score: 1

      Current technologies could produce hunter killer robots, but it would require teams of engineers years of development and billions of dollars to approach the Black Mirror level of inventiveness and adaptation in killing people.

      It doesn't have to be the exact level of Black Mirror to be terrifying, the Boston Dynamics robot dog with a built-in ballistic weapon and an accurate motion sensor is enough. And all of that already exists.

    3. Re: Dark Mirror - Metal Head by muhula · · Score: 1

      It wasn't AI. The original script for the ending showed that a family man was controlling the dog from the comfort of their home office.

      The first draft, though, afforded us a glimpse behind the curtain. "Originally, we also showed a human operator operating the dog robot from across the ocean at his house," Brooker told Entertainment Weekly.

      "There was a bit I liked, where he leaves the [control unit] while the robot is watching her while she's up in the tree and he goes and gives his kids a bath. But it felt a bit weird and too on-the-nose. It kind of felt superfluous. We deliberately pared it back."

  21. Re:Fahrenheit 451... by HiThere · · Score: 1

    This is supposed to be a modified "Spot-mini", so it's not going to be big enough to carry anything heavy, and not going to be sturdy enough to survive being stepped on.

    OTOH, I hope they're less ugly than the prior edition. And I do wonder what possible utility they have. Spies, perhaps?

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  22. Oops..I made wrong size estimate by HiThere · · Score: 1

    Apparently the thing is about 2 ft tall when standing up (presumably not including the giraffe-like neck). So it's sturdier than I was thinking. And from the pictures it's uglier than I remembered. (I wonder who made the robot I was remembering...it wasn't nearly that ugly, and was white with black spots. And it was smaller.)

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  23. Re: The CDC says almost 800k people... by Synonymous+Homonym · · Score: 1

    And?

  24. Sony Aibo? by Synonymous+Homonym · · Score: 1

    NT

  25. Re:Fahrenheit 451... by Peter+P+Peters · · Score: 1

    I suggest you watch the Black Mirror episode 'Metalhead'. That is our future right there.

  26. Airlines un/loading of cargo in bottom by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    I could see these would be good for unloading/loading of aircraft. Hopefully, BD will be smart enough to approach the airlines about that.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re: Airlines un/loading of cargo in bottom by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      None of those robots are close to production. Iow, I would expect other designs to make it work.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  27. how long by drewsup · · Score: 1

    Before there are robot dog fighting rings and would they be illegal??!

  28. Muffit II by marquis111 · · Score: 1

    Daggits are in short supply these days, so they should name it Muffit II.

  29. Re:Fahrenheit 451... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Why not do both? Sell the design for a while, then "leak" it. Mass chaos! Wheeee!

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  30. Re:The CDC says almost 800k people... by butchersong · · Score: 1

    I hate to break it to you... that's not dog poop.

  31. Re: Fahrenheit 451... by denis.goddard · · Score: 1

    A quick search turns up commercial ready-to-use units, plus DIY instructions example

  32. Re:Can they build K-9? by tmjva · · Score: 1

    Saddened this is the only Doctor Who reference in this whole thread.

    --
    Tracy Johnson
    Old fashioned text games hosted below:
    http://empire.openmpe.com/
    BT
  33. i hope they're working on a Skynet. by iq145 · · Score: 1

    They'll need it. The day of the Terminator isn't too far off...

  34. We've seen this movie by Stubbyfingers · · Score: 1

    Aaahnald eventually tries to hunt down John Connor's mother

  35. I'll call mine "Rin Tin Can" by knorthern+knight · · Score: 1

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... I feel old.

    --

    I'm not repeating myself
    I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
  36. Re:Fahrenheit 451... by walterbyrd · · Score: 1

    One of the best Black Mirror episodes, IMO.

  37. Re:Fahrenheit 451... by Peter+P+Peters · · Score: 1

    Whenever I watch those types of disaster scenario movies I always think what would I do to get out of this situation? Most Hollywood productions are so full of holes it's not funny, but this one was one of the few that I had no answer for. Humans will be fucked against robot death drones, and the scary part is that this tech (or a simpler but just as effective variation) is already here. Scary indeed...

  38. Re:Fahrenheit 451... by KingBenny · · Score: 1

    robot dogs, lol, have you ever seen any real robot outside of movies simply *walk* ? ... robot dogs huh ? and what happened to all the strays they put away ? no good ? has to be iDog ?

    --
    Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?