New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It's Spooky • Hacker News Board

Re: New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It's Spooky

#51

Post by jonah » Tue, Mar 18, 2008, 2:27 AM UTC

mattjones wrote: post #24

This excites me. If they become common, people are going to spend a lot of time exploring the world -- an antidote to sitting behind your laptop all day. These things would make great pack animals. When you go hiking, you'll be able to toss your gear into one of these things and have it trot along behind you. You'll be able to take more risks because robots will be able to rescue you from tight places. If you get tir…

My question is why not a real mule? More flexible refueling options, has already been through many iterations, and not nearly as expensive. Seriously.

Re: New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It's Spooky

#52

Post by angstrom » Tue, Mar 18, 2008, 2:35 AM UTC

1gor wrote: post #30

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #18

It's getting scary. It's not that we're going to have robots going haywire and killing people on its own. It's that the elite crust of humanity is going to use it againstt us. Think blackwater is bad now? How about when they're not even human beings? The thing keeping the elites in check for all of human history has been that they can't get too crazy or their own soldiers will mutiny. Hitler was a study in charismati…

What's scary is how much this comment reminds me of Reddit...

On a long enough timeline every discussion on the Internet converges on Hitler and Nazis.

Re: New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It's Spooky

#53

Post by henning » Tue, Mar 18, 2008, 3:53 AM UTC

ivankirigin wrote: post #48

henning wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I felt kind of bad in Trevor Blackwell's latest video where he was stopping Dexter from moving towards him. :( I started constructing dialogs in my head along the lines of "Father, why don't you love me?"

dexter: "one day, old man, you'll pay for this"

the arrival of LOLbots is inevitable.

Re: New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It's Spooky

#54

Post by alex_c » Tue, Mar 18, 2008, 4:05 AM UTC

henning wrote: post #53

ivankirigin wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dexter: "one day, old man, you'll pay for this"

the arrival of LOLbots is inevitable.

Too late:

http://lolbots.com/

(went there to check if the domain's still available)

Re: New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It's Spooky

#55

Post by euccastro » Tue, Mar 18, 2008, 4:33 AM UTC

1gor wrote: post #30

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #18

It's getting scary. It's not that we're going to have robots going haywire and killing people on its own. It's that the elite crust of humanity is going to use it againstt us. Think blackwater is bad now? How about when they're not even human beings? The thing keeping the elites in check for all of human history has been that they can't get too crazy or their own soldiers will mutiny. Hitler was a study in charismati…

What's scary is how much this comment reminds me of Reddit...

To be honest, I'm quite tired of all this "ugh, this is so reddit!" I wish people would discuss the (de)merits of comments in their own terms.

Re: New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It's Spooky

#56

Post by astine » Tue, Mar 18, 2008, 4:36 AM UTC

s3graham wrote: post #42

Wow, really impressive. The ice was amazing (though as someone with bad knees, transferred anthropomorphization makes me cringe). Does anyone know why 4 legs was chosen? 4 seems better than 2 for stabilization, but why not 5, or 6, or 8? Maybe looking like a familiar friendly animal is an end goal?

I'm willing to bet that it was literally and deliberately modeled after a large dog. Engineers borrow design from nature all the time because its much simpler than starting from scratch. Why reinvent walking when dogs already do it so well?

Re: New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It's Spooky

#57

Post by astine » Tue, Mar 18, 2008, 4:38 AM UTC

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #50

1gor wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's scary is how much this comment reminds me of Reddit...

I understand, i'm usually against conspiracy theory bullshit myself. using robots on the battlefield is the only subject I get a little spooked over.

Robots on the battlefield doesn't spook me at all. It seems to me to be an improvement over sending people to risk their lives.

Re: New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It's Spooky

#58

Post by nose » Tue, Mar 18, 2008, 4:40 AM UTC

DARPA was the original ycombinator!

Re: New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It's Spooky

#59

Post by icey » Tue, Mar 18, 2008, 4:57 AM UTC

This really has enormous implications over a lot of fields, not just military. I can see this technology being used in prosthetics, in home-care (walking bots), and all over the service industry.

The first thing I thought when I saw this video was "what's the stock symbol for this company?".

Re: New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It's Spooky

#60

Post by brent » Tue, Mar 18, 2008, 5:14 AM UTC

jonah wrote: post #51

mattjones wrote: post #24

This excites me. If they become common, people are going to spend a lot of time exploring the world -- an antidote to sitting behind your laptop all day. These things would make great pack animals. When you go hiking, you'll be able to toss your gear into one of these things and have it trot along behind you. You'll be able to take more risks because robots will be able to rescue you from tight places. If you get tir…

My question is why not a real mule? More flexible refueling options, has already been through many iterations, and not nearly as expensive. Seriously.

The bigdog is better at recovery when slipping on an ice patch. I need that.