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RandomFactor [soylentnews.org] writes:

MIT lab's has released its pack of 9 robot dogs [theverge.com] 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.

Video [youtu.be]

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 [theverge.com], 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 [soylentnews.org]

When you see them jump out of the concealing leaves together you will know that humanity's time has come to an end.

Original Submission