We first got wind of this back in October, but now it’s official, with a picture… DARPA’s LS3 (Legged Squad Support System) program has just awarded Boston Dynamics $32 million over 30 months to design and build a prototype for a new, larger walking quadruped platform that will probably not be called HugeDog. Here’s what DARPA specifies in the contract:

The program goal is to develop a walking quadruped platform that will augment squads by carrying traditional and new equipment autonomously. These platforms will be capable of managing complex terrain where tactical vehicles are not able to go, lightening the load of Marines and Soldiers and increasing their combat capability. LS3 will carry 400 pounds or more of payload, and provide 24 hours of self-sustained capability over as much as 20 miles of maneuver. LS3 will weigh no more than 1,250 pounds (including its base weight, fuel and payload of 400 pounds).

Key LS3 program themes are:

-Quadruped platform development: design of a deployable walking platform with sufficient payload capacity, range, endurance, and low noise signature for dismounted squad support, while keeping weight and volume scaled to the squad level.

-Walking control: develop control techniques that allow walking, trotting, and running/ bounding and capabilities to jump obstacles, cross ditches, recover from disturbances, and other discrete mobility features.

-User Interface (to include perception technologies): the ability for the vehicle to perceive and traverse its immediate terrain environment autonomously with simple methods of Marine/Soldier control.

The key differences from the existing hardware are increased range (20 miles from 12), increased payload (400 pounds from 340), and the ability to jump and trot. Oh, and the “low noise signature,” which I guess means that DARPA wants it sounding like something besides a giant swarm of bees. Or one giant bee. If everything stays on schedule, we should be seeing some awesome and hilarious videos sometime around 2012.

[ LS3 (PDF) ] VIA [ IEEE ]

The video that includes Boston Dynamics’ BigDog getting kicked and slipping on ice is nothing new, and it’s still one of the best robot videos I’ve ever seen. The vid above includes that stuff, but also some footage that I don’t think we’ve seen before of BigDog descending slopes and getting its foot caught in a concrete block. It’s all very impressive, but even more importantly, it’s damn funny stuff.

[ BigDog ]

Boston Dynamics has had a page on its website about PETMAN for like a year now, but this is the first we’ve seen of the actual robot. PETMAN is (or will be) an anthropomorphic robot the same size and shape as an average human, designed to test chemical protection suits for the army. PETMAN will be able to move freely on its own; walking, crawling, and “doing a variety of suit-stressing calisthenics during exposure to chemical warfare agents.” Fun! The robot will also be able to control its own temperature and humidity and even sweat inside the suit it’s testing, kinda like this robot just with 100% less creepiness.

PETMAN’s legs and walking intelligence comes from BigDog, which means that PETMAN has no trouble recovering from a shove. We’re looking forward to lots more footage like this… Next up, how about PETMAN on ice?

[ Boston Dynamics PETMAN ]

We first heard about the Precision Urban Hopper back in May, as a jumping robot collaboration between Sandia Labs and Boston Dynamics. This video is the first time we’ve seen the thing in action, though, and it seems to be pretty well on track to fulfilling the design concept. I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch to say that the easy (easier) part is done; that is, creating a robot capable of launching itself 25 feet in the air in a specific trajectory with a piston. The thing that doesn’t appear to have been figured out yet is the ability to stabilize the jump. Certainly, the robot works fine as is: it’s durable enough to jump, crash, and keep on driving. But it would be very handy to have a robot capable of making stable jumps, which would allow it to return useful in-flight video… For example, if you want to see what’s over a wall, send this little guy over and have him jump up and take a peek. There are already solutions for this exact problem, but the Precision Urban Hopper offers more flexibility, since the hopping package can be used for both surveillance and movement.

Delivery is still scheduled for late 2010.

[ Sandia Labs ]

Researchers at places like MIT have been using Boston Dynamics‘ LittleDog robot for years now as a testbed to teach legged robots to learn how to traverse variable terrain on their own. This video shows some highlights of a “dynamic double-support gait,” which means (as near as I can tell) that LittleDog is supporting itself, at times, on only two of its four legs. This is a substantially more efficient way of negotiating terrain than we first saw two years ago. LittleDog also demonstrates some markedly biological ways of negotiating obstacles (with the possible exception of the belly flop on the Jersey barrier)… I especially liked how it pranced in place slightly before tackling each stair. All this stuff is obviously a lot of work for a little bot, since poor LittleDog completely collapses at the end of every test.

LittleDog, remember, is teaching itself the most efficient way to negotiate these surfaces. Overhead cameras examine the terrain and plan out LittleDog’s route by computing a ‘cost’ for each step, which takes into account the distance moved towards the goal as well as the potential for a fall. After a lot of trial and error, LittleDog figures out how to best compromise between progress and stability, and the lessons it learns could be propagated up to other, larger quadruped robots.

This video is from Phase 2 of DARPA’s Learning Locomotion program… MIT’s LittleDog team was awarded funding for Phase 3 of this program back in 2008, so we’ll keep you updated.

[ MIT Robot Locomotion Group ]
[ 2006 Abstract ]

When Boston Dynamics updated their website a few weeks ago, we noticed a little blurb about some kind of hopping robot that they were working on. There were no more details from Boston Dynamics, but I ran across a press release from Sandia National Labs that provides more information and this picture.

The robot’s primary method of movement is a set of four wheels (although I imagine that it could easily be fitted with tracks). If it encounters an obstacle, the robot deploys a piston that can launch it up to 25 feet in the air, 30 times over. The hop height is controllable even if the robot is launching itself from different types of surfaces, and Boston Dynamics is working on ways to keep the robot stabilized in, uh, flight (I guess?) to limit tumbling when it hits the ground.

Funded by DARPA, the delivery date for the hopper is sometime in 2010… It will be used primarily for surveillance, but DARPA wants the option to mount weapons on it, too. Kinda makes you wonder about the possibilities, doesn’t it?

[ Sandia National Labs ]

A few weeks ago, we posted about a robot octopus tentacle that was completely squishy, with no rigid parts. Boston Dynamics is getting in on the fun and is working on a SquishBot of its own; it’ll be able to transform from soft to hard and change its critical dimensions by up to a factor of 10 to stuff itself into cracks and crevices.

The Boston Dynamics team is joined by researchers from MIT who have experience developing “slug robots.” Slug robots, you say? Of course I had to scour the internets for those MIT slug robots. And here you go:

This is Robosnail, from MIT back in 2003. Snails have two primary methods of locomotion: undulating, and galloping (!). Galloping, apparently, is when “like an inchworm, the animal sticks the front of its foot to a surface (thanks to suction and friction from the mucus), and then draws the rest of its body up behind it.” Robosnail doesn’t gallop, but it does undulate: “by pushing [fluid] backwards, they can build up large pressures in the thin layer of mucus. The sum of all these pressures then pushes the snail forward.” The mucus fluid in this case is Laponite, a mixture of clay and water, and it’s viscous enough that Robotsnail can even undulate across a ceiling.

[ Boston Dynamics SquishBot ]
[ MIT Robosnail ]

Why the heck am I suck here in California when there are robots frolicking on a fabulous beach in Thailand?

I need a vacation.

And a big quadruped robot.

[ Boston Dynamics ]

OMG It’s an autonomous military robot with a deadly weapon attached! PANIC!!!

Or, just find yourself a red cape, and you’ll be fine.

[ Boston Dynamics ]

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 ]