Between this and their Big Dog project hurling concrete blocks around, I feel mildly worried...
http://hackaday.com/2013/03/29/bigdog-throwing-cinder-blocks...
Boston Dynamics' Petman robot successfully wears clothes
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Re: Boston Dynamics' Petman robot successfully wears clothes
#12Is it completely free to walk on its own or do the cables assist with balance?
There is a video [1] of it walking on its own. I suspect they have the cables because it was leaning over, twisting, squatting, etc and they probably want to assist with balance. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mclbVTIYG8E
In a couple of those sequences, it looks like the robot is shod with rock climbing shoes.
Re: Boston Dynamics' Petman robot successfully wears clothes
#13Isn't it odd that they keep claiming the robot is being created to "test combat clothing for soldiers"?
Re: Boston Dynamics' Petman robot successfully wears clothes
#14Between this and their Big Dog project hurling concrete blocks around, I feel mildly worried... http://hackaday.com/2013/03/29/bigdog-throwing-cinder-blocks...
Don't worry, Anonymous will hack them and keep us safe.
Certainly, the power divide between the government and people (inside or outside of its borders) continues to grow. The scary thing to me (in a distopian future) is that robots won't hesitate to do as they are programed. Soldiers sent in to "subdue" their own population might at least think twice.
Re: Boston Dynamics' Petman robot successfully wears clothes
#15The cables definitely look like training wheels. Even a very slight bit of tension could assist with balance. Of course that assumes the robot has some sort of kinesthetic sense.
The early versions of BigDog had support cables to protect it in case it fell as well. Eventually the stabilization hardware + software got good enough to where they weren't needed any more.
Re: Boston Dynamics' Petman robot successfully wears clothes
#16Great, now I'm going to have nightmares for weeks.
Re: Boston Dynamics' Petman robot successfully wears clothes
#17Pick up that can.
Re: Boston Dynamics' Petman robot successfully wears clothes
#18The cables definitely look like training wheels. Even a very slight bit of tension could assist with balance. Of course that assumes the robot has some sort of kinesthetic sense.
The cables are there to prevent the robot from damaging stuff during testing. If a human falls, it catches itself, or at worst breaks a wrist and spends a couple weeks healing. Unrestrained robots have far more spectacular failure modes; a falling humanoid typically lands on an outstretched limb and breaks it right in half, setting the project back months and costing huge amounts of money. Or it goes nuts but doesn't fall over immediately, instead flailing around on a short rampage that ends with the robot broken and everything nearby having been whacked by the limbed equivalent of a runaway golf cart.
Source: been there, done that, don't tell OSHA. :P
Re: Boston Dynamics' Petman robot successfully wears clothes
#19The cables definitely look like training wheels. Even a very slight bit of tension could assist with balance. Of course that assumes the robot has some sort of kinesthetic sense.
These guys are legit. You put those on there because the robot is worth millions. And yes, it has a sense of balance and very very fast reflexes.
Re: Boston Dynamics' Petman robot successfully wears clothes
#20It has been interesting to watch Dr. Raibert's ideas grow. A long time ago there was an interesting debate going on between subsumption architecture that Dr. Brooks was pushing and Dr. Raiberts work (both at MIT). As a robot guy I've been fascinated by both of them, but Raibert's work was hampered by the fact that his creations were only stable when constantly moving and Brook's creations were always stable. The argument went that dynamic stability was so energy inefficient it would not be a good fit for doing locomotion.
The advantage of dynamic stability is of course that your robot is constantly in danger of falling down, that is its natural state, so trying to knock it over doesn't really change what its doing a whole lot.
I did not think I would see dynamic stability in a humanoid shape though (power off condition is laying horizontal :-). Watching it is pretty unnerving. I'm impressed they have it working.