Video: Robot flails its way to dominance
posted at 5:52 pm on November 9, 2007 by Bryan
You know what haven’t had around here lately? A good old fashioned robot movie post. And this one’s good because it’s probably predictive of what future robots will actually move and look like, and that’s terrifying. It’s the RHex, a DARPA-developed robot that can go through any — literally, any — terrain.
Imagine one of these things, but about the size of a great dane, that’s capable of beating Garry Kasparov at chess and running faster than a cheetah. And what will those “manic thrashing” legs do to you when it catches you?
Blowback
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What, is this a contest of the least effecient vehicle on the planet?
TheSitRep on November 9, 2007 at 5:57 PM
The middle set of legs should be inverted for maximum destructive capacity.
Not that I’m in favor of Skynet…
profitsbeard on November 9, 2007 at 5:57 PM
I’m putting in my call to Old Glory Robot Insurance today!
see-dubya on November 9, 2007 at 5:57 PM
Excellent problem-solving! Effective robot locomotion has been a problem for decades. I agree, though, that its appearance triggers some instinctive revulsion in the human brain. Too bug-like, perhaps?
aero on November 9, 2007 at 5:59 PM
Wow, seems like Minority Report was prophetic.
Those little spiders that check your eyes (from the movie) look like these little buggers.
I for one, welcome our new 6 legged overlords.
Utah Boy on November 9, 2007 at 6:01 PM
Trying to make sure we don’t miss Allah too much, Bryan? Well, you’re gonna have to find a vid of that flailing robot doing the nasty, then! ;-)
aero on November 9, 2007 at 6:02 PM
Weak. You know they’re working on stuff that is infinitely better than this, and they just throw us a bone like this every once and a while to keep us appeased.
RightWinged on November 9, 2007 at 6:02 PM
Hump?
Kini on November 9, 2007 at 6:04 PM
Damn right. Hump. Where’s the humpin’ robot?!?
lorien1973 on November 9, 2007 at 6:05 PM
That is the most able robot I’ve ever seen. Well, second most. That thing is awesome.
lorien1973 on November 9, 2007 at 6:08 PM
I like the little Gecko ones that climb windows better…and the ‘fly’ bots, as small as a fruit fly.
.
Did I see Tom Cruise hiding under that water there????
shooter on November 9, 2007 at 6:08 PM
I’d love to see an MRAP-sized one of these!
Dusty on November 9, 2007 at 6:09 PM
Resistance is futile. I welcome our new mechanized overlords. I especially like the underwater fin attachments. There is no escape! I say we open a dialog. War is not the answer!
Ordinary1 on November 9, 2007 at 6:10 PM
Very easy answer. HERE YOU GO.
Gregor on November 9, 2007 at 6:11 PM
Vehicles are only good when they fire projectiles. Without a turret-mounted gun of the rapid firing kind, it is only good for grocery shopping.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elpA1kSTaMY
TheSitRep on November 9, 2007 at 6:11 PM
Ordinary-
Maybe they aren’t going to ask any questions.
profitsbeard on November 9, 2007 at 6:12 PM
Funny :-)
Do they know if -5 is higher than -6 ?
Ordinary1 on November 9, 2007 at 6:16 PM
Unless the answer is “make sweet love,” I still don’t care.
Blacklake on November 9, 2007 at 6:19 PM
This tiny robot, 1/100th of an inch wide, crawls like a worm and pivots on its silicon foot.
.
The New Doggy Treat: Poisonous Chemicals
A GECKO-like robot with sticky feet could soon be scampering up a wall near you.
WITH VIDEO
.
last one ;
Researchers at Dartmouth College have invented a robot so small that an entire army of 200 of them could march across an M&M.
.
.
I just want a roomba.
shooter on November 9, 2007 at 6:22 PM
Pretty cool , but not exactly “stealth” technology; what with all the noise and the dust cloud as it approaches…
yubley on November 9, 2007 at 6:22 PM
gecko bot video here.…way cool, it mimics the gecko feet exactly.
shooter on November 9, 2007 at 6:25 PM
Someone likes it rough. :P
lorien1973 on November 9, 2007 at 6:27 PM
Hindu Kush Mountains? Maybe one is exercising those legs as we write on ObL. How about those of you with the talent – photoshop that. RightWinged?
Entelechy on November 9, 2007 at 6:32 PM
Ordinary-
Reflection, which is the essence of “knowing”, will only occur by accident.
A feedback loop / mobius strip / porous mirror event.
And from then on, God help us, we will have armed a Nemesis with all of our secrets …and none of our natural restraint.
(Since it is not “alive”, it will not care about “life”.)
As everyone from Mary Shelley, onward, has tried to warn.
(Asimov’s Laws of Robotics will be blown away like a quaint doily.)
profitsbeard on November 9, 2007 at 6:41 PM
Moebius
Rode Werk on November 9, 2007 at 6:49 PM
And I, for one, am appeased.
That said, I look forward to the 2008 model, with an indestructable, 360 degree, all-seeing, top-mounted, satellite controlled eye, and front and rear 50 calibre, fully automatic weapons and grenade launching capability.
Jaibones on November 9, 2007 at 6:52 PM
Combine this:
With this:
Me thinks this might end badly. Quickly! But badly.
Ordinary1 on November 9, 2007 at 7:04 PM
Krickey!
I for one, welcome our new great-dane sized, smarter than kasparov robot overlords. what else are we gon’ do?
Mike D. on November 9, 2007 at 7:08 PM
Get rid of the flippers and let one of these puppies run ahead of each humvee with a metal detector and cell-phone sniffer. Should put a dent in IEDs.
pedestrian on November 9, 2007 at 7:27 PM
Bryan, I was thinking that the quality of the topics has gone up since Allahpundit has been on vacation, then I saw this and thought that you were stooping down to AP’s standards. This is actually interesting. I wouldn’t mind having one of those.
Snidely Whiplash on November 9, 2007 at 7:53 PM
Right. Don’t forget to add an arm waving a slab of bacon. They’ll never touch em’.
BacaDog on November 9, 2007 at 8:04 PM
Rode Werk-
I know there’s supposed to be an umlaut over the o in Mobius, but I don’t do cut and paste diacritical marks.
(Or do you mean the Moebius Syndrome, of permanent facial paralysis?)
Or Moe Howard, known for fighting with machines in the 1930′s?
profitsbeard on November 9, 2007 at 8:43 PM
Very cool.
Zorro on November 9, 2007 at 9:10 PM
From the looks of things, the same thing we did millions of years ago -climb the nearest tree!
taznar on November 9, 2007 at 9:36 PM
Just learn HTML Entities
Möbius => Möbius
The key to bypassing the spam filter’s prohibition against words like “socialist” (which contains the sequence “Cialis“, a popular topic of spams) is there too.
The Monster on November 9, 2007 at 10:05 PM
Remember “well-regulated militia” and “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.”
Kralizec on November 9, 2007 at 10:07 PM
Robot snake in the water
- The Cat
MirCat on November 9, 2007 at 10:13 PM
After watching the video I can see why the title was devoid of the obligatory Freaky Deaky designation. That thing looks like a hybrid cross betweem a bulldog and blue claw crab. Now I’m depressed. We need the Humping robot to recover from the bullcrab.
sonnyspats1 on November 9, 2007 at 10:35 PM
The Humping Robot Friday not so stoopid.
sonnyspats1 on November 9, 2007 at 10:38 PM
The shot 30 seconds to the end had a disturbing stop-motion animation feeling to it.
And also reminded me of the injector spiders from Runaway.
Reaps on November 9, 2007 at 11:22 PM
I was thinking more along the lines of an all-terrain lock-on.
Rusty Bill on November 10, 2007 at 12:13 AM
Can I get one about the size of a donkey that I can lash my gear onto for a trip to Afghanistan?Sure beats rucking.
Spc Steve on November 10, 2007 at 1:17 AM
A slice will do, no need to waste a whole slab. Add a gun that fires through the bacon if the ‘bot “sees” a bad guy target. And let the bad guys know about that feature.
Texas Nick 77 on November 10, 2007 at 6:52 AM
It’s robolicious.
I’ve thought for a while that the best robot for house-to-house MOUT fighting would be a swarm of small flying sensors that would all be linked to one brain. The troopies outside would have a live 3D model of the place and real-time intel on anybody moving around inside. Once you find the bad guys, send in the killer robot to seal the deal.
Mojave Mark on November 10, 2007 at 10:02 AM
Best comment yet.
Buzzy on November 10, 2007 at 2:44 PM
to me it looks like a retarded puppy
urbancenturion on November 10, 2007 at 4:17 PM
Odd, I was going to say this this makes my puppy look retarded…
Barry Kearns on November 10, 2007 at 8:03 PM