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The latest version of the LittleDog robot

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Re: The latest version of the LittleDog robot

#31

Post by rimantas »

bh23ha wrote: post #24
mooneater wrote: post #11

Its been said before, but needs to be repeated every time: The implications of this line of R&D are horrific. Removing the risk of say, US soldier casualties, combined with media control, and with "merely" the current level of inhumanity of political leadership, would be a very ugly mix indeed. So yeah, its hard for me to get excited about the tech in this case.

Unlike the A-bomb which is lovely. Or the decidedly low-tech genocide in Sudan. Or the genocides and crimes against humanity in all the other places. Bottom line is Homo homini lupus . It's not like the risk of US soldier casualties is that much of deterrent. Bombs, A-bombs, robots, not that different, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

So existence of A-bomb or low-tech genocide somehow justifies creation of new means to kill people?

Re: The latest version of the LittleDog robot

#32

Post by modeless »

staunch wrote: post #18

Why can't it move 10x or 100x faster? Is speed constrained by computation or something else?

Pertinent facts from one of their papers: http://www-clmc.usc.edu/publications/K/kalakrishnan-IROS2009...

The robot drives its motors at 400 Hz based on control signals coming in at 100 Hz from an external computer. 100 Hz is probably the limit of the sensing system they're using, which is a motion capture system external to the robot. (Notice the reflective marker balls on top of the robot and also on the terrain.) My guess is that's the limiting factor here, though supporting a higher rate would probably also require faster software, and I have no idea what the limb speed/precision limits of the robot are.

Re: The latest version of the LittleDog robot

#36

Post by njharman »

vitobcn wrote: post #7

I find amazing how difficult it is to successfully perform apparently trivial tasks such as walking. There's more information about the 'LittleDog' on the Boston Dynamics website: http://www.bostondynamics.com/ I was really impressed 2 years ago by their video of the 'BigDog': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww (check out t=40s)

I find it amazing HN readers believe walking is a trivial task.

Re: The latest version of the LittleDog robot

#38

Post by StrawberryFrog »

motters wrote: post #19
mooneater wrote: post #11

Its been said before, but needs to be repeated every time: The implications of this line of R&D are horrific. Removing the risk of say, US soldier casualties, combined with media control, and with "merely" the current level of inhumanity of political leadership, would be a very ugly mix indeed. So yeah, its hard for me to get excited about the tech in this case.

They're only horrific if they're misused. Robots like this will also have plenty of non-military applications - especially in agriculture. Legged locomotion opens up the possibility of cultivating land which was previously inaccessible to conventional farming automation. It should also be said that there is nothing inevitable about the close association between robotics and the military - it's just an artefact of Ame…

They're only horrific if they're misused.

Given that this whole line of research is funded by the US military, what do you mean by "misused" ? Wouldn't "used" be more accurate?

Re: The latest version of the LittleDog robot

#39

Post by modeless »

mooneater wrote: post #11

Its been said before, but needs to be repeated every time: The implications of this line of R&D are horrific. Removing the risk of say, US soldier casualties, combined with media control, and with "merely" the current level of inhumanity of political leadership, would be a very ugly mix indeed. So yeah, its hard for me to get excited about the tech in this case.

Don't worry, we're much farther from that than you might think from this video. This robot can't see where it's going. It requires external cameras watching it from known fixed locations to figure out where it is. Not only that, but the cameras cannot look at a piece of terrain and figure out the 3D structure; the terrain must be mapped out in advance as a 3D mesh, down to the millimeter.

Re: The latest version of the LittleDog robot

#40

Post by puredemo »

rimantas wrote: post #31
bh23ha wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike the A-bomb which is lovely. Or the decidedly low-tech genocide in Sudan. Or the genocides and crimes against humanity in all the other places. Bottom line is Homo homini lupus . It's not like the risk of US soldier casualties is that much of deterrent. Bombs, A-bombs, robots, not that different, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

So existence of A-bomb or low-tech genocide somehow justifies creation of new means to kill people?

Sure. It'll be more transparent at least. And there might even be some due process eventually.
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