BigDog Sets New Record
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 23 of February , 2009 at 8:18 am
Boston Dynamics’ quadrupedal BigDog robot set a new legged autonomous distance record last year by traveling 12.8 miles without any human intervention. Following a series of GPS waypoints, BigDog walked a 2.5 miles per hour, autonomously avoiding obstacles and dealing with varied terrain until its fuel ran out.
This is pretty impressive, but not good enough for DARPA, who wants a legged robot with a range of 20 miles and a 400 pound payload for its new Legged Squad Support System program. Based on the progression of the BigDog system, though, I have no doubt that this will be achievable in the near future.
Just for fun, here’s a new (but unrelated) video featuring BigDog:
[ Boston Dynamics ]
Comments (1)
Category: Artificial Intelligence, Biorobotics, Military
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Comment by Moose
Made Tuesday, 24 of February , 2009 at 10:24 am
I love Big Dog, but I swear, that video drives me up the wall. Both the reporter and anchor obviously aren’t comfortable in front of a camera and their on-screen time feels forced and contrived. As a side note I’ve always found it amusing and endearing how Big Dog will keep working its legs even when its holding position, sort of like a kid pretending that the ground is lava and they have to keep moving in order to not “get burned.” I hope Boston Dynamics can figure out a way to get Big Dog moving at more of a trot or run, because right now its effectiveness seems to be severely limited by its maximum speed.