MIT's robo-cheetah leaps walls in a cyborg hunt for Sarah Connor Robot builders at MIT have created a cyber-cat that can run and jump over objects without human control. Youtube Video The robot in question, the DARPA-funded Cheetah, is capable of leaping over walls 18 inches tall – more than half its own height – and continuing to run as fast as 22 kilometers per hour (13mph). "A running …
Don't forget, robots overlords aren't bothered by radiation. The one coming after you will have a 10kg slug of plutonium in it providing 5kw of power. If you can manage to keep ahead of it for 90 years, it'll be down to 2.5kw though, so your chances will double.
Better hope you are a citizen of Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong.
I would not be so sure about this immunity to radiation, just ask NASA engineers. Now, mounting pounds of plutonium into this junk would make it more of a target than hunter (and just plain heavy). Also, by the looks I'd bet that on downward slope this thing would just tumble over, it'll be funny to look at. In addition, even if it was stable in straight line, any "helpful" nudge from side would have it on it's back, ready for picking of precious content/parts.
Not the cheetah, that's a pretty sweet bit of kit. What sucks is to have that kind of tech but also having to run along beside it pushing a cart with your mate on it so he can film it from a good angle. Of course the stop at the end sucks even more for your mate if you slip and fall.
What sucks is to have that kind of tech but also having to run along beside it pushing a cart with your mate on it so he can film it from a good angle. Of course the stop at the end sucks even more for your mate if you slip and fall.
Yes, that surprised me too. I would have expected a segway, a tracking drone (maybe they couldn't get one that wasn't armed:) ) or even another robot..
OK, the number of times that I'm going to be chased through an indoor sports hall by a mechanical predator is (very hopefully) exactly zero, but it's not too soon to be thinking of ways to defeat robotics of this sort. I would expect that one could blind the LIDAR with a handheld laser, for example, and it'll be a while before robo-boffins have a struggle-out-of-a-polypropylene-net algorithm.
This is definitely deep in the Uncanny Valley.
Edit: I would also observe that this mecha-cheetah does not have the essential feature that makes a bio-cheetah able to hit such high speeds, viz. a very flexible spine. I would observe that, only I don't want to give the blighters any ideas.
"Or Bolas would be really bad news for it."
There would be an issue with taking out the weaponised version. While you're concentrating on the task of hitting it's legs with the bolas, will it be liberally spraying you with a 20mm autocannon? Or, perhaps a 'Westinghouse M-27.'
"It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead."
Or at least not until the battery runs out. Or catches fire.
On the other hand, despite what at first seems a very uncomfortable ride, the main torso is actually quite smooth moving all things considered. Can we scale this up to ride on? Or in? Yee Haa Cowboy! Sod the traffic jams!
You need to read The Entrepreneurial State by Mariana Mazzucata. Her thesis is that Apple exists exactly because of this. It is not the animal spirits of US companies, but the billions of dollars in basic research that no commercial company would do. So DARPA does it first then US companies ride on the back of it.
Indeed, as Keynes noted, it is the publicly funded organisations of the state that have the animal spirits.
The Entrepreneurial State
I opened it then closed it.
It's total, utter crap and totally at odds with anything real and what I encounter around me. Or with common sense. The author must be pissing from high up the ivory tower.
Indeed, as Keynes noted, it is the publicly funded organisations of the state that have the animal spirits.
Keynes was also one of those people that manage to actually NEVER be right about anything. But he managed to lather his writings into so much high-falutin bullshit that politicians and academics alike could reasonably claim that reasonable policy was being described, and thus could follow their instincts to generate free money. Which brings us to today's neverending economic meltdown.
"Keynes was also one of those people that manage to actually NEVER be right about anything."
You're so full of shit your eyes are brown. It's supply side economics that is the complete and utter fallacy. Trickle-down-your-pants economics is up there with every chunk of Randian bullshit as some of the most toxic ideas mankind has ever produced.
It may not need a head, but a tail would obviously improve the performance enormously. Look at the way the hind end moves. A tail would enable it to get the legs up with far less body movement, saving a lot of energy. (Using a combination of momentum and air flow).
They need to make it look more like Ravage for the EPIC 80's Robo Kitty!
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