FRIEZE NEW YORK 2013
INTERNATIONAL HOME + HOUSEWARES SHOW 2013
TOKYO DESIGN WEEK 2012
BEIJING DESIGN WEEK 2012
If I told you I had the following vision: "I saw a tall David Cross hiking through the woods and being followed by a horse that was actually a robot," it would sound like I had 1) Eaten spicy food before bedtime, 2) watched Arrested Development, Seabiscuit and Short Circuit then 3) went to bed and had one of those combination-of-my-day nightmares. But no, it's actual DARPA footage of my old nemesis Boston Dynamics' latest LS3 robot development program advances.
Working together with the U.S. Marine Corps' Warfighting Laboratory, they're now showing actual, practical applications for their creepy and mesmerizing quadropedal robots: They've created a pack animal that follows you around.
Gives new meaning to the phrase "Soldier, keep that head on a swivel!" If that wasn't creepy enough, I do not enjoy how the machine, after falling down around 2:15 in the video, gets back to its feet and freezes in place. It is as if it's feeling ashamed of its blunder and is processing actual emotions.
Comments
A pack animal that follows you around is called a donkey. Or a mule. Or a horse. They are pretty cheap and replaceable, they are reliable and easy to control, they auto-repair, sometimes even after major injuries, their fuel literally grows on trees (okay, okay, on the ground), their lifespan exceeds the one of any robot we can build in the foreseeable future. And we have a some-thousand years experience with all associated technology.
Can anyone explain why they keep on wasting tons of money to build something inferior to a donkey?
Always getting one step closer to terminator tech...
[Now he said, "LS3, follow tight."
But what I heard was, "LS3, sick balls."]
@wr: Robots don't misbehave. Robots are less concerned about being shot at. Robots don't bite people they dislike. Robots don't leave crap everywhere. Robots do not spook or shy away from loud noises or shiny objects. Donkeys cannot be remote controlled. Donkeys cannot navigate by GPS. Robots do not get sick. That, and robots are just sexier than donkeys.
Admittedly, robots break. (And if supplies are short you can't eat them...)
@wr, You can't put animals into storage with little or no maintenance until they are needed. You can't stack and transport them easily like you can with a robot, and you don't have to worry about PETA breathing down your neck about their treatment. I could go on, but the little thought that you show in your comment about the subject shows that it would be a waste of time to go on.
I had no idea comedian David Cross worked at Boston Dynamics.