Imagine..
..how fast it could go if it wasn't going in reverse!!
The ever-inventive mad scientists at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has released a video of its Cheetah quadrupedal robot, showing how it's now the fastest mechanical beast on four legs. If you happen to have a wee child watching over your shoulder at this very moment, The Reg strongly suggests that …
Article says: "I, for one, emphatically do not welcome this particular robot overload."
I say: I, for one, would very much welcome an overload before this thing becomes the overlord. That thing can run at double the speed I can drive to work in the morning.
Well done, though. As a noob hobbyist enthusiast I'm still struggling just to control a single robot arm, let alone make it run amok at several mph.
"Not that I don't fully trust my benevolent government to always have my best interests at heart"
Did you really write that with a straight face?
Seriously, you forgot to mention the bit about it having trouble with stairs. It does have a problem with stairs, right? Please, just say it and I'll believe you. Now then, where did I put the tequila?
Can walk, run, go down stairs *and* dance all without wires. I think the boffins at Honda scoff at this attempt of a running robot. Me believe that, if Honda would put a little bit of effort into this, they could create a running robot that would outrun a real cheetah (instead of calling it one)!
It's also slow, unable to right itself, obstacle-challenged, and not at all agile.
Boston Dynamics already has the Big Dog (and it's little cousin) which can negotiate rough terrain, is hard to knock over and largely self-righting, and is fairly fast in its own right. Cross Big Dog with Cheetah, and you've got a *fast* agile, un-tethered, petrol-powered beast.
Then there's Boston Dynamics' Rise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEMlkonimvQ
Hard-core high-octane nightmare fuel at that link.
Honda needs to up its nightmare game - clearly, they've lost the plot.
You're not kidding. The black fur sort of covering, the way it staggers then carries on when the guy brutally kicks it, the goat-like legs and the way it keeps coming over ice, snow and forest tracks...the way IT DOESN'T HAVE A HEAD!
The army wont need to fight if they have these. The enemy will just run in horror.
Terminator, for obvious reasons.
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If they ever put any kind of covering on that one or a future version (wether it's skin like or just plastic) they really HAVE to make sure it looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
And give it his voice.
And get it knocking on people's doors and saying "Sarah Connor?" when they open it.
My guess is that they'd find kangaroo-style running easier. Why? Because kangaroos have a less evolved brain than other mammals. Also because tripedal stability is easier than quadrapedal.
I'll be worried when it can carry its own power supply and run on grass. (At that point I'll start having nightmares about the Beast in "Farenheit 451").
More to the point, its batteries'll last longer.
IIRC Kangaroos have long, elastic tendons running down their legs, so that somewhere north of 80% of the energy from landing gets played back into the next hop. Again IIRC, the conclusion was that nothing beats hopping for travelling long distances on the ground with minimal energy use.
Doesn't make the damned things look any less stupid though.
"can do 18mph all day"
Only while there's a bloke with what would need to be a very long power cable running along side.
Fill the robot with batteries, and the cheetah with a gazelle, and see which one lasts longer.
My money is on the cheetah winning that particular endurance contest - I suspect that robot requires a lot of juice.
Oh come off it. I cannot be the only parent* who has glimpsed some of "Wolverine and the X-Men" and seen the Sentinel variant that resembles this. Failing that there's something similar in Robotech (New Generation?) for the older ones amongst us.
Sheldon Cooper would despair at the lack of background knowledge of the readership here.
*That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.