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UK's Ministry of Defence has its own creepy hazmat testing robot (video)
Boston Dymanics' Petman now has serious competition in the "eerie human-like robots" category, courtesy of the UK's Ministry of Defence. This new contender is a £1.1 million ($1.8 million) masterpiece called Porton Man, named after the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in Porton Down, Wiltshire. If you're expecting a killing machine designed for the battlefield, though, you'll be sorely disappointed. The Porton Man will actually be used for tests in the development of new and lighter protective equipment for the military. Remember how Petman donned and tested a hazmat suit at one point that made it even creepier than usual? It'll be doing something like that.
Boston Dynamics puts AlphaDog through more field training, teaches Atlas robot to hike over rocks
Boston Dynamics' sprinting WildCat robot isn't the only autonomous machine it's letting roam the great outdoors: AlphaDog is still trudging through the wilderness too. A flurry of updates to the firm's YouTube channel reveal that the four-legged robot (officially known as the LS3) has been undergoing field testing in Twentynine Palms CA, which included overcoming rough-terrain, GPS guided maneuvers and endurance tests. It's impressive, as always, as is the outfit's progress with Atlas, a bipedal robot that evolved from Boston Dynamics' Petman. The humanoid machine can now negotiate a rocky walkway with relative ease, adding another party trick to its already impressive repertoire. The video updates didn't say if the machines were ready for the DARPA Robotics Challenge later this winter, but you can get an eyeful of the company's progress after the break.
DARPA's Atlas robot will be taught to save you if the sky falls (video)
DARPA and Boston Dynamics seem bent on engineering the robot revolution, and it's while wearing a suspicious smile that they introduce us to Atlas, their latest humanoid creation. Inorganically evolved from Petman and an intermediate prototype, Atlas will compete in DARPA's Robotics Challenge (DRC) Trials in December, where it will be challenged with "tasks similar to what might be required in a disaster response scenario." The seven teams that made it through the Virtual Robotics Challenge stage, held in a simulated environment, will massage their code into the real 6' 2" robot, which sports a host of sensors and 28 "hydraulically actuated joints." Also competing for a spot in the 2014 DRC finals are six "Track A" teams, including a couple of crews from NASA, which've built their own monstrous spawn. Head past the break for Atlas' video debut, as well as an introduction to the Track A teams and their contributions to Judgement Day.
Boston Dynamics' Petman robot successfully wears clothes (video)
Boston Dynamics has been releasing video after video of its Petman humanoid robot performing a variety of tests, but something has always been missing: clothes. No longer. The company has today released a new video that demonstrates the robot can not only wear clothes, but make you never look at a hazmat suit the same way again. As the company notes, the testing isn't just for Petman -- thanks to some DoD funding, it's using the robot to test suits like this in hazardous conditions, with an array of sensors on the robot itself able to detect chemicals leaking through the suit. Sit down, and head on past the break to see the video for yourself.
Robot Hall of Fame inducts Big Dog, PackBot, Nao and WALL-E (video)
It's the sort of ceremony that's so magical it can only occur on even-numbered years. Inventors, educators, entertainers, college students and media folk gathered at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA tonight for the 2012 inductions to the Robot Hall of Fame, a Carnegie Mellon-sponsored event created to celebrate the best of our mechanical betters. This year, the field included four categories, judged by both a jury of 107 writers, designs, entrepreneurs and academics and the public at large, each faction constituting half the voting total. The show kicked off, however, with the induction of 2010 winners, the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, the da Vinci Surgical System, iRobot's Roomba, the Terminator and Huey, Dewey and Louie, a trio of robots from 1971's Silent Running. The first 'bot to secure its spot in the class of 2012, was the programmable humaoid Nao, from Aldebaran Robotics, which beat out the iRobot Create and Vex Robotics Design System in the Educational category. The PackBot military robot from iRobot took the Industrial and Service category, beating out the Kiva Mobile Robotic Fulfillment System and Woods Hole Oceanographic's Jason. Boston Dynamic's Big Dog ran over some stiff competition in the form of Willow Garage's PR2 and NASA's Robonaut to win the Research title. And WALL-E triumphed over doppelganger Johnny Five and the Jetsons' Rosie in the Entertainment category. Relive the festivities in four minutes after the break.
Robot Hall of Fame voting begins for class of 2012, Johnny 5 learns where BigDogs sit
It's that time again: time for Carnegie Mellon to roll out the red carpet and welcome the crème de la crème of the robotics world into its halls. Since 2003 the school has been selecting the best of the best and inducting them into the Robot Hall of Fame. Past honorees have included everything from LEGO Mindstorms to the Terminator. This year's list of nominees is no less impressive, with celebrity bots Johnny 5 and WALL-E pitted against each other in the entertainment category, while NASA's Robonaut takes on the PR2 and BigDog under the banner of research bots. There will also be two other inductees awarded a spot in the hall in the consumer and education category and the industrial and service field. Best of all, for the first time ever, Carnegie Mellon is letting the public vote on the inductees. And, while PETMAN was snubbed yet again, he's not letting that get him down -- the Boston Dymanic's biped just keeps on struttin'. Hit up the source link to cast your vote before the September 30th deadline and check back on October 23rd to see who's granted a podium speech.
Boston Dynamics PETMAN portends the pending robot apocalypse
If the sight of Boston Dynamics' unstoppable Alpha Dog didn't convince you of the coming robot apocalypse, then perhaps a glimpse of its bipedal relative, PETMAN, will. Last time we saw the two-legged bot, It was walking well enough, but it lacked the humanoid visage needed to infiltrate and overthrow. In the time since, however, PETMAN has gotten a more anatomically-correct body and some arms -- giving it some push-up prowess to go with its jaunty gait. As the video below demonstrates, this robot isn't a T1000 just yet, but is seems certain PETMAN and its progeny will be running and leaping over us meatbags on the way to the top of the evolutionary food chain soon enough. So our anthropomorphic replacements are on the way, but there's no need for full-blown panic... yet.
Boston Dynamics PETMAN predicts the future of man as pet (video)
At this stage of its development, PETMAN is here to assist mankind. However, it's clearly fated to be weaponized as an AT-ST walker in support of Imperial ground forces. For the time being anyway, this biped humanoid is being built by Boston Dynamics to test military suits used to protect soldiers in chemical warfare. As an evolutionary advance from its four-legged BigDog platform, PETMAN does the ol' heel-toe at a healthy 3.2 MPH (5.14 KPH) and packs enough balancing intelligence to remain upright even when given a shove from the side. Check out the action after the break. [Via Make]
