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Robots [pics]

boston.com

106 pointsjuliend219 comments

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Check out this video of Big Dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHJJQ0zNNOM

It's pretty creepy, when you imagine what's to come...

How the robot deals with ice is incredible. Thanks for the link!

Also, here's a video of Big Dog's early predecessor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXJZVZFRFJc

OMG!

When I started watching that I was thinking that if I was ever in a situation where this robot was chasing me uphill through a forest I would just run up to it and kick it over to slow it down. Then 30 seconds later they demonstrate how well you can expect that plan to turn out :)

Looks really Metal Gear-ish, doesn't it? A bit like a quadrupedal GEKKO...

I like the one with Arnold Schwarzenegger and the robotic arm. He probably gets Cyberdyn flashbacks from his movies.

I was just thinking the same thing. LOL

Maybe this could be the thing that brings back technology companies to Massachusetts? A big chunk (I'd say a majority, but I didn't count) of these robots are from companies in or around Boston (including my favorite BigDog from Boston Dynamics in Waltham).

Maybe we'll call it Robot Cove?

Edit: I do realize this is an article from boston.com...

No, they will all come here to Pittsburgh to work with Red Whittaker and the CMU Robotics department.

At least, I'm hoping... :)

I work in Boston's robotics industry. Business is actually pretty good, if not actually booming, the general shittiness of the economy notwithstanding.

Where do you work? (If you don't mind me asking)

Is the anybody out there doing robotics in a start-up or this is the playground of well funded research?

iRobot, who were once a start-up themeselves, recently bought Nekton Research, a start-up that made underwater robots. I suspect that most start-ups are spun out of the research world and have the military as their primary customers.

Well, there is Trevor Blackwell (of YC), who started Anybots...

http://anybots.com/

One of my teachers (Akim Demaille from Epita) leads a French start up whose aim is to unify the way we communicate with robots (sort of) : http://www.gostai.com/

Oh this is totally going to end up as a huge venture capital fad. 5 years? 20 years? Hard to say exactly when.

After that, it's totally going to hit the world like a sack of bricks.

Robotic Nation from Marshall Brain (the "how stuff works" guy)

Have we learned nothing? Don't name your robot HAL!

The Toyota trumpeters approached the uncanny valley. They have an "X-files" alien species look to me.

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