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back to article Boffins' ball barrage bombardment biffs bumbling bimble biped-bot

For your amusement this morning we have this video of a walker robot being attacked by a gang of boffins in a park: The machine was built at Oregon State University, is known as the ATRIAS and - you guessed it - is funded by Pentagon warboffin bureau DARPA. It's to be a contender at the DARPA Robotics Challenge in California …

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  1. Evil Auditor Silver badge
    Devil

    ROTM!

    Don't make it angry! Around 0:52 you can clearly see that the machine starts a counter attack on the meatsack.

    3 0 Reply
  2. Cliff

    Impressive

    But I can see the team of guys carrying its walking frame being a weak spot on the battleground - their your footballs at them instead ;-)

    3 0 Reply
  3. frank ly

    Not a realistic test

    If that plasma cannon it has mounted on top had been charged and enabled, those boffins would have been toast.

    1 0 Reply
    1. tfewster
      Reply Icon
      Terminator

      Re: Not a realistic test

      Recording...facial recognition subroutine loaded...awaiting removal of the tether...TARGET ACQUIRED

      1 0 Reply
  4. Little Mouse
    Boffin

    A robot that can cope with "being attacked by a gang of boffins in a park"?

    Do we really need a robot to help us in the event of a Nerd Apocalypse? What's wrong with just dishing out a few wedgies?

    5 0 Reply
  5. Crisp
    FAIL

    Has nothing been learned from Endor?

    That's not how you take down a walker! You want to swipe it with a tree trunk!

    3 0 Reply
    1. Aqua Marina
      Reply Icon

      Re: Has nothing been learned from Endor?

      My girlfriend watched ROTJ (and the other 5) a few weeks ago for the first time. And she asked something that I hadn't even considered in the last 30 odd years I've been watching it. When did the Ewoks get the time to prepare all the logs in the right places, without being discovered?

      6 0 Reply
      1. Crisp
        Reply Icon

        Re: Has nothing been learned from Endor?

        I imagine that the Ewoks were under regular incursion from Imperial troops and set up forest defences accordingly. After all, those troops must have had a presence there for some time to construct the force field emitter.

        1 0 Reply

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  7. Alister

    Boffins' ball barrage bombardment biffs bumbling bimble biped-bot

    Blimey!

    3 0 Reply
    1. imanidiot Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Bollocks!

      0 0 Reply

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