"New" Quadraped

[jaspinall]

[youtube=VXJZVZFRFJc]Big Dog Beta[/youtube]

Quitely chortled watching this, skip to 1:10 for the bit I lol'd for real.

...and the real thing:
[youtube=W1czBcnX1Ww]Boston Dynamics Big Dog[/youtube]

[jaspinall]

Oh to have DARPA's funding...some seriously deep pockets, lined with gold, methinks!!

That said, some seriously awesome realtime processing going on there. One assumes the constant whizzing sound is some kinda gyro for stability....

[jaspinall]

EDIT, scrub that... the racket it's making is generated from the petrol engine used to drive all the hydraulics!

It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog's legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight.

BigDog has an on-board computer that controls locomotion, servos the legs and handles a wide variety of sensors. BigDog’s control system manages the dynamics of its behavior to keep it balanced, steer, navigate, and regulate energetics as conditions vary. Sensors for locomotion include joint position, joint force, ground contact, ground load, a laser gyroscope, and a stereo vision system. Other sensors focus on the internal state of BigDog, monitoring the hydraulic pressure, oil temperature, engine temperature, rpm, battery charge and others.

In separate trials, BigDog runs at 4 mph, climbs slopes up to 35 degrees, walks across rubble, and carries a 340 lb load.

[Demmo]

the first movie is really great.. i've started watching it without reading comments and at the beginnig i was amazed that they have reached shape and functionality so similar to human legs because i've seen big dog in action before and its legs looked funny.. LOL.. some time after i realized how they did that really, really great

but referencing to real Big Dog - amazing job - walking on ice, rocks, deep snow... breathtaking piece of art

[Matt Denton]

Yup.. LMFAO the first time I saw the spoof... truly Inspired!

[plingboot]

ugh... the 'real' thing is far too creepy - i'd sh!t bricks and build a wall of i saw that running up the hill towards me , the way it recovers from that kick to the side is particularly impressive though.

[jaspinall]

It walking on ICE and deep snow, is also very impressive! Serious power in those hydraulics to respond so quickly!!