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Boston Dynamics has produced a hybrid wheeled-legged robot called "Handle":
The company's new wheeled, upright robot is named Handle ("because it's supposed to handle objects") and looks like a cross between a Segway and the two-legged Atlas bot. Handle hasn't been officially unveiled, but was shown off by company founder Marc Raibert in a presentation to investors. Footage of the presentation was uploaded to YouTube by venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson.
Raibert describes Handle as an "experiment in combining wheels with legs, with a very dynamic system that is balancing itself all the time and has a lot of knowledge of how to throw its weight around." He adds that using wheels is more efficient than legs, although there's obviously a trade-off in terms of maneuvering over uneven ground. "This is the debut presentation of what I think will be a nightmare-inducing robot," says Raibert
Boston Dynamics has yet to become profitable, and the Alphabet/Google complex looks to distance itself from "terrifying" and "nightmare-inducing" robots that may ultimately end up being sold to military customers (as long as they forget past disappointments):
While the robot's extreme sports skills were impressive, it's unlikely that Raibert's "nightmare-inducing" comment will be well-received at Alphabet. The company has been looking for a buyer for Boston Dynamics for months, reportedly after its last robot launch video went viral, and amid what Alphabet perceived to be "some negative threads about it being terrifying." The company was apparently in talks with Toyota about a takeover, but that has not as of yet materialized. Boston Dynamics is reportedly struggling to make money, especially after the US Navy said it would not be purchasing its robots.
So this is what Ethanol-fueled has been up to. Also at TechCrunch.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday February 03 2017, @04:04AM
I can't wait for the anime adaptation.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday February 03 2017, @05:23AM
Unfortunately there will be no anime promotional vid.
However, as somebody who previously worked with their mechatronics division (now transferred to their wireless applications division) I can give you some insight as to the mechatronics divisions' M.O.
Firstly, these guys were influenced by automatons from Short-Circuit, [nocookie.net] Terminator 2, [nocookie.net] and those robots are fine if not inefficient for a flat warehouse scenario. But the agile (and appropriately creepy) wheelchair mutant from the Doom movie [youtu.be] was what really piqued their interest in a hybrid robot which could be fast and adaptable on flat ground. Occasionally a Millennial intern will mention Wall-E, but those get laughed right out of the room.
I couldn't tell you in advance because of non-disclosure agreements (my previous statements were cleared by legal) but I can say now that the Boston Dynamics guys are living the technological dream - they are rockstars free to invent what they choose, and while a large number of collected humanoid features are inefficient for robots for other than therapeutic purposes, the research in itself is valuable in the long-run.
I can't hold a candle to the guys who designed and built the robots, for they have engineering knowledge of amazingly precise collections of dynamic systems which would smoke my mere creations (The Gay Jewish Robots HAL Goldberg and Tyrone Silverstein), but I can say that at this time they cannot beat a skilled crew of power-assisted human warehouse workers. I honed my knowledge of that working the midnight shift for Home Depot which introduces the challenges of large warehouses with freight on multiple stories. Indoors you have a bunch of masculine bad dudes, but like the sport of Basketball that masculinity is really a rather improvised feminine dance around each other. Indoors you would have people on foot and stand-up forklifts [raymond.mx] whizzing all around motorized pallet-jacks, [directindustry.com] all working faster than human speed (road-speeds, actually) and barely fast-enough to fix your eye on. Outdoors was no different, the forklift operators were working safely (always beeping the horn when moving backwards) but with impressive speed and skill considering they were swinging around pallets of solid rock.
And, like Home Depot, the bosses at Boston Dynamics are still working on the floor helping you out, not sitting on their ass all day crunching numbers on Excel sheets. Will they replace skilled humans? Not when you have to throw 3 semis full of freight into one warehouse and in one night. But when speed isn't a factor, your robots-on-rails are more than sufficient.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @07:29AM
I can't hold a candle to the guys who designed and built the robots, for they have engineering knowledge of amazingly precise collections of dynamic systems which would smoke my mere creations (The Gay Jewish Robots HAL Goldberg and Tyrone Silverstein),
You know, I have always suspected that Ethanol_fueled was employed as a sanitation technician, rather than something actually involved with technology beyond mops. That is usually where all the anti-semite racist bastards are, anyway.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @09:21AM
Don't be a bigot.
Racists cunts can come from any demographic.
I truly believe in an equal opportunities for cuntism.
I just hope someone who works there uses the info he has given to work out who he is and posts his messages to his boss...should be fun...
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Friday February 03 2017, @07:06AM
Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cfRsCFHIsw [youtube.com]
For reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77CA81GZ3fE [youtube.com] http://megasxlr.wikia.com/wiki/R.E.C.R. [wikia.com]
compiling...
(Score: 1) by islisis on Friday February 03 2017, @09:54AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcyFQyRJAss#t=36s [youtube.com]