This material may be fairly old, but i couldn't find any previous threads. The video shows 'Boston Dynamics' prototypes for DARPAs 'Big Dog' Learning Locomotion project, intending to make walking 'mule' UGVs for soldier equipment. It's amazing how well they walk, it looks almost alien. At one point a guy tries to kick it over (quite hard) and it responds to stay on it's feet like a real animal does.
Note that this video is from mid-2005.
The Guardianmentions a similar Vietnam-era project by General Electric.
Technovelgy wrote:The Defense Advanced Research Project Authority (DARPA) Learning Locomotion project seeks to create algorithms that help multi-legged platforms learn to walk in varied terrain. DARPA will be handing out a series of $600K-$800K research grants to teach 6.6 pound, ten inch "Little Dogs" to walk.
Robert Gilruth to Max Faget on the Apollo program: “Max, we’re going to go back there one day, and when we do, they’re going to find out how tough it is.”
Elheru Aran wrote:...Why? What can this do that a truck or ATV can't? How long can it go on battery power? How much can it carry? Hmm?
It can be brought along to places that don't have roads nearby or really accesable areas for such large vehicles as a truck or ATV to move through such as a mountainous or forested area. Humping a trail and bringing this thing along to ease the load is most likely their intent on it.
It's probably cheaper to bring along mules though.
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Soontir C'boath wrote:
It's probably cheaper to bring along mules though.
Mules ARE notorious for being muleish though. If I were a soldier trying to sneak around a forest the last thing I'd want to deal with* is a suddenly recalcitrant pack animal.
*in fact, there are a vast number of things a soldier would be happy to forgo in favor of an asshole ass. But it would sure be annoying and probably dangerous.
I find it eery how all mountainous pack animals are ornery. Llamas, mules, goats...
"If one needed proof that a guitar was more than wood and string, that a song was more than notes and words, and that a man could be more than a name and a few faded pictures, then Robert Johnson’s recordings were all one could ask for."
The reason why Mules/Donkies are stuborn is because they are intellegent and Naturally Cautious animals. They are stuborn because of those two facts, although once you gain there trust they will go along with what Humans want them to do. The Problem is earning there trust, which takes time.
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Elheru Aran wrote:...Why? What can this do that a truck or ATV can't? How long can it go on battery power? How much can it carry? Hmm?
*shrugs shoulders* Darpa just funds everything i guess. 'High risk high payoff' and all that.
I think it will end up being very impressive but hundreds of thousands of dollars overbudget, get cancelled, then have the technology licensed to a Japanese corporation who proceeds to build bipedal versions. For recreation, that is. People will fight games with them etc, just because it's so damn cool.
Robert Gilruth to Max Faget on the Apollo program: “Max, we’re going to go back there one day, and when we do, they’re going to find out how tough it is.”
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Zor wrote:The reason why Mules/Donkies are stuborn is because they are intellegent and Naturally Cautious animals. They are stuborn because of those two facts, although once you gain there trust they will go along with what Humans want them to do. The Problem is earning there trust, which takes time.
Why then are horses not as stubborn? Do you have any evidence that mules/donkeys are more intelligent and cautious than other equids?
"If one needed proof that a guitar was more than wood and string, that a song was more than notes and words, and that a man could be more than a name and a few faded pictures, then Robert Johnson’s recordings were all one could ask for."
How long until rat things start taking rent-a-cop jobs?
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I think it probably runs on a motorbike engine, it's pretty bare-boned so i expect with cowling and a muffler it'll be quieter. This video is pretty old.
Robert Gilruth to Max Faget on the Apollo program: “Max, we’re going to go back there one day, and when we do, they’re going to find out how tough it is.”
Zor wrote:The reason why Mules/Donkies are stuborn is because they are intellegent and Naturally Cautious animals. They are stuborn because of those two facts, although once you gain there trust they will go along with what Humans want them to do. The Problem is earning there trust, which takes time.
Why then are horses not as stubborn? Do you have any evidence that mules/donkeys are more intelligent and cautious than other equids?
if a horse doesn't like you or know you its a total asshole. i know this from experience from my girlfriends pony and may of the other horses at the stable. if a horse doesn't want to do something, it will not do it.
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To a degree, that's true of all domesticated animals excepting sheep, chickens and turkeys (even then, males in the mating season are worse than your average bogan). Former predators are usually less likely to frightened, which is why you don't call someone "as stubborn as a dog".
Which is why I'm still confused as to why herbivores display different behaviors despite being closely related, and of similar lifestyle and intelligence.
"If one needed proof that a guitar was more than wood and string, that a song was more than notes and words, and that a man could be more than a name and a few faded pictures, then Robert Johnson’s recordings were all one could ask for."
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