Four-legged US Robot Taken for Test-Gallop

[dipsydoodle]

WASHINGTON, October 7 (RIA Novosti) – It sounds like a motor scooter, looks like a metallic wasp that stands on large matchstick legs, and puffs out blue smoke when it gets going: it’s the WildCat, the latest robot developed for the military by US company Boston Dynamics, and if it doesn’t scare the heeby-geebies out of you, it will probably amaze you as it outruns and outmaneuvers you on rough terrain.

In a test run, WildCat clocked about 16 miles per hour (26 kilometers per hour) on flat terrain using bounding and galloping gaits. The robot is so new that Boston Dynamics has not yet added information about it to the company’s website, but this video clip, showing the new ‘bot during a test-run in a Massachusetts parking lot, which some locals will insist is rough terrain, was posted several days ago on YouTube.

Boston Dynamics is developing the WildCat with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program.

One of the main goals that DARPA, which is part of the US Defense Department, gives developers who work on the M3 program is to develop robots that are able to operate in tough environments similar to those where military personnel often find themselves.

http://en.ria.ru/science/20131007/183993832/Four-legged-US-Robot-Wildcat-Taken-for-Test-Gallop.html includes video.

[Bavorskoami]

1. This four four legged robot is pretty cool too.

This is the the world's largest four legged robot. built in Germany for a pageant that goes on in a place called Furth im Wald every year. The video promotes both the pageant and the technological capabilities of the manufacturer. It is a bit slow, so I am guessing the Army would not find this too practical. It might distract the enemy a bit though.

#t=40

[ProdigalJunkMail]

2. partly a semantics issue

but your post is about a puppet, albeit a very complex one... every movement is controlled by a person. the wings, the legs and even the movement of the eyes is controlled by a person. it takes several people to make this thing go. the OP was about a robot, that while it does need human interaction, that interaction is limited to direction and speed commands and it doesn't require a human to tell it which leg to move and when...

both are very cool in their own right!

sP