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Extreme parkour with legged robots

extreme-parkour.github.io

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Re: Extreme parkour with legged robots

#51

Post by roenxi »

fuelfive wrote: post #18
nightpool wrote: post #3

As a reminder: CMU and its robotics program is intimately associated with the US Department of Defense, and although there are certainly civilian applications for this technology, one of the most likely short-term applications is improving legged drones for battlefield deployment (often, it should be said, in humanitarian roles, including search and rescue, or support roles, such as ammo, food, and water resupply, bu…

Glad to see our universities making progress in this important area of national security.

This tech is the stuff of nightmares. People are going to see this unfeeling little chitinous bug-dog-thing crawling in with them, then they die. And it is making it cheaper to kill people in exotic foreign lands.

This is the tragedy of the commons. I'd rather see nobody making these advances, but if someone has to it'd better be people on my side. Can't stop progress :(

Re: Extreme parkour with legged robots

#52

Post by p1esk »

PoignardAzur wrote: post #46
p1esk wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You better have your own robots protecting you.

The only protection from a bad guy with a robot is a good guy with a time machine and a shotgun.

Wait, who was the bad guy with a robot? I thought there were only bad robots.

Re: Extreme parkour with legged robots

#53

Post by XorNot »

croes wrote: post #48
gumby wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are vehicles that can navigate terrain a wheeled vehicle cannot. So they could do anything from operate as pack "animals" for infiltration teams to be armed drones that creep along the ground, harder to detect than a flying one.

Once again, how does this improve national security? That's offense not defense. It worsens the national security of your opponent but doesn't strengthen your own.

What do you think defense actually is in the current technological era?

You don't defend territory with static defense's or force fields or walls.

Re: Extreme parkour with legged robots

#54

Post by [deleted] »

fuelfive wrote: post #18
nightpool wrote: post #3

As a reminder: CMU and its robotics program is intimately associated with the US Department of Defense, and although there are certainly civilian applications for this technology, one of the most likely short-term applications is improving legged drones for battlefield deployment (often, it should be said, in humanitarian roles, including search and rescue, or support roles, such as ammo, food, and water resupply, bu…

Glad to see our universities making progress in this important area of national security.

[deleted]

Re: Extreme parkour with legged robots

#55

Post by beambot »

nightpool wrote: post #50
beambot wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironic comment given the implied nationalities of the coauthors (Xuxin Cheng, Kexin Shi, Ananye Agarwal, and Deepak Pathak) and the chosen robot form factor (Unitree)

Is it? I think it's important to understand that this type of robotics research requires serious ethical considerations no matter where it happens or who works on it—this work specifically was funded by the US military, but it applies just as equally to weaponization projects happening within China.

Does the Chinese military sponsor education for US Citizens on military-adjacent projects in China? Why (not)?

Re: Extreme parkour with legged robots

#56

Post by foderking »

noelwelsh wrote: post #29

I'm sure this is impressive for an autonomous robot. However, as a fan of real parkour its kinda annoying to see some modest jumps and walking on a slope labelled "extreme parkour". What the robot demonstrates I'd expect any healthy 10 year old to be able to equal.

its actually hard for robots to compete with 10 year olds

Re: Extreme parkour with legged robots

#57

Post by jiggawatts »

sbierwagen wrote: post #8
082349872349872 wrote: post #2

there ought to be plenty of money in this for delivering explosive payloads... (Edit: although come to think of it, in the animal world, jump height is much more constrained by 9,81 m/s2 than by body size)

Artillery exists. Delivering explosive payloads is a solved problem. Detecting humans is a solved problem. The hard part is reliably distinguishing enemy solders from friendly soldiers or civilians.

Artillery is surprisingly inefficient.

It takes about 15 rounds of 155mm artillery per battlefield casualty. Each shot costs about $5k.

Robots like this might cost the same as a single artillery shot but have the ability to get multiple kills each.

It’s a cold arithmetic, but I guarantee you someone at DARPA is thinking and planning the future of warfare in these terms.

Re: Extreme parkour with legged robots

#60

Post by s3krit »

noelwelsh wrote: post #29

I'm sure this is impressive for an autonomous robot. However, as a fan of real parkour its kinda annoying to see some modest jumps and walking on a slope labelled "extreme parkour". What the robot demonstrates I'd expect any healthy 10 year old to be able to equal.

The metrics they're using (2x its height for climbing a wall, 2x its length for crossing a gap) are weird and don't really relate to the same achievements for a traceur. 2x its height is really more like slightly over 1x its usable body for that maneuver (0.4m length, 0.51cm height of the climb). I agree, not extreme but still pretty impressive for a robot. We're not going to see them doing cat leaps any time soon ;)
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