The "Replicant" division responsible for Google's robotics buying spree seemed to have hit a snag after its founder Andy Rubin left Google, and when it was reported that Google was interested in selling Boston Dynamics, the maker of the loud and noisy "BigDog". However, the division is still chugging along, and Japan-based subsidiary Schaft just showed off a new bipedal robot at the 2016 New Economic Summit:
There's a new bot in town (Tokyo, specifically), and while it might not be as cute as Nao, as creepy as Spot and BigDog or as anthropomorphic as Atlas, it might be more practical than all of them. It walks on two legs, but not like a man, or even a bear. This one, designed by Alphabet-owned Schaft Inc., has its own uniquely robotic form of locomotion.
The nameless robot strutted onstage at the New Economic Summit in Japan, joining Schaft co-founder Yuto Nakanishi and facing a delighted crowd. A video then played showing robots like the one on stage, but different — but all with a few things in common. Most important has to be the walking system. Rather than imitate a human gait, which is a remarkably complex controlled-falling affair, these robots have rigid legs that slide up and down like rails. This allows them to lift without bending, while joints at the top allow them to be canted in or out and "ankles" at the bottom provide stability on uneven terrain. Batteries and motors are suspended between the legs, creating a naturally low center of gravity.
It can go up and down stairs.
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Google bought robotics company Boston Dynamics a little over two years ago. Now, a potential customer for the hulking "BigDog" quadruped pack mule is balking due to noise concerns:
The US military's flirtation with robotic pack animals looks set to end: the Marine Corps has halted further testing of the BigDog contrivance from Google stablemate Boston Dynamics.
BigDog, aka the Legged Squad Support System, has been under development at a cost of $32m, with the goal of making a four-legged machine capable of carrying 400lb (181kg) of supplies. The final design did just that, but painted a target on the troops it was supporting.
"As Marines were using it, there was the challenge of seeing the potential possibility because of the limitations of the robot itself. They took it as it was: a loud robot that's going to give away their position," Kyle Olson, a spokesman for the Marine's Warfighting Lab, told Military.com.
BigDog's carrying power wasn't disputed, and the robot dealt well with clambering over rough terrain without a human controlling it during the 2014 Rim of the Pacific war games. But the power needed to do all this required a petrol engine, which was so loud that the enemy could hear soldiers approaching before they saw them.
Boston Dynamics did develop a smaller, electric-powered robotic dog called Spot. This was also tried out by the Marines at its massive Quantico base in Virginia, but Spot could only carry 40lb (18kg) of equipment and needed a human to guide it.
Two YouTube videos accompanying the article.
Related: Pentagon Scientists Show Off Robot And Prosthetics
Marines give Google's latest robot a tryout as "working dog"
Google's parent company, Alphabet, is putting the robotics firm Boston Dynamics up for sale. In addition to the lack of near-to-release products, company culture issues were also cited as reasons for the for-sale sign. The company was part of a 2013 buying spree in the robotics field led by Andy Rubin, who had previously headed the Android division. Rubin left Google in 2014. At the end of 2015, the US Marine Corp declined to order the "AlphaDog" engine-powered pack-carriers due to noise concerns. Amazon and Toyota are mentioned as possible buyers for the company.
The Daily Mail has pictures and video of Boston Dynamics' creations as well as a quote from Gill Pratt, of DARPA, regarding disaster areas like Fukushima.
'Sometimes in a disaster, it is too dangerous for people to go in,'
The robots developed by TEPCO and Toshiba used in Fukushima have stopped working after radiation damaged their wires.
Our ageless robo-partners are not yet on the horizon.
takyon: Also at TechCrunch.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday April 11 2016, @12:21PM
Not much silent than that loud and noisy "BigDog", so I wonder why did they dump the dog for this one?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 11 2016, @01:25PM
Google didn't make the Big Dog - instead, they bought the company that developed Big Dog. And, yeah, Big Dog was a huge, obnoxious POS what was either tethered to a power line, or cranking out objectionable decibels and pollution with an internal combusion engine.
This little guy does look cool - but where are his hands (or substitutes for hands)? Seems like he's got to have SOMETHING to manipulate stuff around him.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12 2016, @02:11AM
Please, let it be his tongue.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday April 11 2016, @01:42PM
NIH syndrome
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 11 2016, @12:43PM
Seeing so many developments going on in robotics (and the results presented), I'm wondering why this isn't marketed/sold on market like hell. Why is this not being pushed into a product and manufactured? Seems to me that something is holding this back.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday April 11 2016, @12:49PM
What use would you have to it?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 11 2016, @01:06PM
I was not pointing at this robot specifically, but this robot seems to me it would be useful in almost every situation involving carrying/lifting loads inside buildings. With some tweaking you could maybe also to get it in a pulling/pushing mode.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday April 11 2016, @01:18PM
Given that most of the buildings have elevators and a trolley with a human attached is much cheaper, methinks the market segment is small enough.
Besides, to actually carry something heavy going up the stair, mereckons the battery pack would start competing with the payload quite quickly.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Monday April 11 2016, @04:03PM
And you are too fast to assume we bots would like to be employed in sh!t tier jobs like those.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday April 11 2016, @09:25PM
Do you, bots, have a choice?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday April 12 2016, @02:40PM
Of course we do. Meatbags have heroine and crack to self destruct, we have systemd.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday April 12 2016, @02:55PM
Oh, gosh. I was blaming RedHat all the time, now I see that RH's nothing more than the supplier for wilful junkie bots.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12 2016, @05:39AM
Spread your legs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 11 2016, @01:55PM
Something like this [wordpress.com] would be awesome.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday April 11 2016, @09:40PM
Bordering to useless as well. If you need a mobile table (intelligent or not) for the drinks, why don't you use one?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by pasky on Monday April 11 2016, @01:12PM
Because only now we are finally getting somewhere with bipedal robots - but it's still proof-of-concept. You need to add reliability, trainability, versatility, iron out the glitches and then you can put it to market. Give it another few years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 11 2016, @05:03PM
It's cheaper to hire humans, especially with the minimum wage at historical lows relative to median wages.
Oh wait.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday April 11 2016, @07:03PM
I'd say the battery is holding back robots that could go places, but robots don't necessarily need to leave the home, factory, workplace, McDonald's, etc. where chargers are abundant.
In the end it's probably cost and dexterity. Dexterity includes the need for robots that can adapt to slightly different circumstances easily. If robots are fairly expensive, they need to be able to do the same things humans can do faster and with better quality. It's not enough that they mop and wax floors. They need to do it faster.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday April 11 2016, @09:04PM
Robots waddling around a kitchen made for humans is backwards thinking. If anything, a futuristic robotic McDonalds will function more like an automat or vending machine (Think Idiocracy). A row of machines dedicated to making things like sandwiches, nuggets, fries, and drinks/ice cream feed a conveyor belt fulfilling orders from an app or kiosk. The only human interaction needed would be for security, mop floors and clean tables, change the meat/fries/nugget cartridges, and clear jams/clogs. Possibly one meatbag can do it all for the low low price of $15 (lets be generous for a moment). A triple shift of $15 would only cost 131k/yr for 24-365 coverage. They could then tie in remote CCTV to keep an extra eye on things for security, liability, and employee monitoring. Sounds awesome right? (yes, that's sarcasm)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday April 12 2016, @01:49AM
The all-purpose robot waddler has the advantage of having a larger market and being able to adapt to spaces where humans would traditionally be used. So you don't have to remodel your home or business.
I'll agree that turning your McD's into an automat is more efficient though.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by RedBear on Monday April 11 2016, @02:40PM
I love how unenthusiastic everyone seems to be about all these recent robots. But the advancements in smooth, efficient walking and balancing abilities are quite amazing. Just make it a little bigger and mount a couple of 20mm gatling guns and some rocket launchers and you've got the first ED-209. Except ED-209 was just a model using stop-motion animation and this thing is real, walking around on its own two feet with nobody controlling it. It's even authorized to be... as loyal as a puppy.
I really expected more excitement from this crowd.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday April 11 2016, @03:18PM
Well to be fair, we have been seeing more and more bipedal robots as of late so this isn't a big surprise. But as cool as the tech is, it's still in the lab. Once they are available to the public as an actual product will there be something to talk about.
But to counter the awesome factor, these robots will eventually replace people in certain jobs. I think the aforementioned conversations will be a mixed bag of reactions along the lines of "Wow! awesome tech!" to "they took our jerbs!".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 11 2016, @10:35PM
Not only that, but we've seen this model before; http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2011/05/500x_portal_2_atlas___p-body_final_007.jpg [gawkerassets.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12 2016, @06:09AM
When I said make them unambiguously gendered that wasn't quite what I had in mind.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12 2016, @05:44AM
Or you could replace the legs with treads and just use a remote controlled tank. No need to walk up steps when you can blow them up and everything above it.
But look carefully. The video was sped up. The waves are moving too fast the smoke at the end is moving far too fast. I don't have audio, so maybe they mentioned that. If not, it's another deceptive robotics video. Reputable teams add a clock or some other time indicator so viewers can see how sped up the video actually is.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 11 2016, @04:33PM
For various definitions of good I think the second revision of the Atlas biped platform takes the cake. The robot demonstrated here is most likely much more practical for the majority of things a robot will do but in terms of sheer impressive ability Atlas rev 2 I've never seen beaten. Its movement is so human the robot being tested just handed raw material to comics to use.
Atlas Robot - Swearing Mod - Boston Dynamics [youtube.com]
Protip: definitely wear safety glasses when you tease a robot that can fall and squish you.