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Monday, 3 October 2011

AlphaBot

Posted on 05:38 by hony

The above video has been circulating amongst us engineers (and other nerd types) with awe and wonder. As is my nature (and because I am intimately familiar with many of Boston Dynamics projects) let me just drop this one grain of salt: notice the hydraulic and power lines leading up to the suspension system?
The thing is about as autonomous as a fetus. That's not to say that in the future it won't have on board power generation, compressors, hydraulic fittings, and computer systems. It just means that it won't be next week.

Some will remember BigDog, BD's last four legged robot. It ran autonomously, as this video (which inspired widespread fear of a robotic mule uprising) shows. So it certainly is possible to pack all the guts on the bot, instead of in the ceiling above it.

I guess my bottom line is "calm down, nerds! wait for 2.0!"


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