from the 'luminum-legs-leisurely-leaping-and-lounging dept.
MIT Labs has released its pack of 9 robot dogs upon an unsuspecting Killian Court and they are highlighted running, jumping, playing dead, rolling in the leaves, following the leader, kicking around a soccer ball, synchronized flipping, etc.
There's nothing I like more on bright and cold autumnal days than heading down to the park and watching the robot dogs playing in piles of leaves. To hear the scuttle of their little metal legs! To imagine the joy in their tiny silicon brains! Ah, what bliss.
The dogs are the model known as 'Mini Cheetah' but they're more doglike than catlike.
If you've not experienced these delights before, then the video above from MIT's biomimetics lab will give you the basic idea. The bots you can see are the university's Mini Cheetah: a lightweight and modular quadruped that's been under development for years. We saw the Mini Cheetah earlier in 2019 when it learned to backflip, but the biomimetics lab has obviously cranked up production and now has at least nine of these little bots.
Each one weighs about 20 pounds (or nine kilograms), is powered by 12 electrical motors, and can reach speeds of around six miles per hour (or 2.5 meters per second). As you can see in the video, they're all being steered manually using what look like RC controllers.
Previous coverage of the somewhat similar Boston Dynamics SpotMini
When you see them jump out of the concealing leaves together you will know that humanity's time has come to an end.
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Atlas, the hulking humanoid robot from Boston Dynamics, now does backflips.
To be clear: Humanoids aren't supposed to be able to do this. It's extremely difficult to make a bipedal robot that can move effectively, much less kick off a tumbling routine. The beauty of four-legged robots is that they balance easily, both at rest and as they're moving, but bipeds like Atlas have to balance a bulky upper body on just two legs. Accordingly, you could argue that roboticists can better spend their time on non-human forms that are easier to master.
But there's a case to be made for Atlas and the other bipeds like Cassie (which walks more like a bird than a human). We live in a world built for humans, so there may be situations where you want to deploy a robot that works like a human. If you have to explore a contaminated nuclear facility, for instance, you'll want something that can climb stairs and ladders, and turn valves. So a humanoid may be the way to go.
Source: https://techxplore.com/news/2017-11-atlas-robot-backflip.html
Also: https://www.wired.com/story/atlas-robot-does-backflips-now/
takyon: Don't forget the new SpotMini as seen at The Verge, Quartz, and Popular Mechanics. Even Ethanol-fueled couldn't stop it.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday November 08 2019, @09:42PM (3 children)
The only reason why they let those dogs loose at MIT is because dogs bark at Black people and there are no Black people at MIT. Though, somewhat related, we here at Boston Dynamics do have some diversity hires from Cal State Long Beach and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Obviously those diversity hires are used to not only being barked at, but barking themselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 08 2019, @09:53PM (1 child)
YOU LARPER
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @07:41AM
Eth_fuel does not actually have a job. He is a brain-damaged son of an admiral what exposed to a few too many rads, and now has a son that only
Boston Dynamics can be coerced into "hiring". I have seen this all too many times with the disabled offspring of the imperialist forces of the United States. The wound even the second generation! So sad, so pathetic. Poor Ethanol_fueled. We all wish him a good death.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 08 2019, @11:16PM
You don't work at BD. They don't hire idiots like you.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday November 08 2019, @10:51PM (1 child)
Lovely 'literation, lads.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday November 09 2019, @12:27AM
(Score: 2, Informative) by jlv on Saturday November 09 2019, @12:55AM (1 child)
But all the frolicking is just at the hands of the people with the controllers...
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:22AM
That's what the dogs want you to think....
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:27AM (1 child)
All they need is weapons and the design will be complete.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:52PM
I want one that can transform into various things like a jet sled, submarine, jetpack, cybernetic arms like Jax from MK, spring-loaded platform on its back, etc.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday November 09 2019, @03:32AM
It's creepy watching them run around with no heads.
(Score: 1) by cyberthanasis on Saturday November 09 2019, @06:36AM (1 child)
These are not dog like at all.
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Saturday November 09 2019, @01:48PM
I was thinking spiders when they are on their backs.
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