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“Enemy”, a bit strong? Maybe, but tell me these creations don’t look sinister and aggressive. The perfect Praetorian guards for a dystopian future I can only too easily image.
The latest in the Boston Dynamics range was unveiled online at the end of last month. See the video of Handle in action:
Standing 6.5 ft tall, it can travel at speeds of up to 9mph – so it can outrun me – and can even jump 4 ft in height.
The robot is described thus:
It uses electric power to operate both electric and hydraulic actuators, with a range of about 15 miles on one battery charge. Handle uses many of the same dynamics, balance and mobile manipulation principles found in the quadruped and biped robots we build, but with only about 10 actuated joints, it is significantly less complex. Wheels are efficient on flat surfaces while legs can go almost anywhere: by combining wheels and legs Handle can have the best of both worlds.
For previous Gadget Master posts on Handle’s antecedents see Welcome mighty Atlas, the headless humanoid and Spot the robot dog, working for the clampdown and PETMAN press-ups – the robotic humanoid evolves! and Robot BigDog gets a BigBrother…
This is how the company describes itself:
Boston Dynamics builds advanced robots with remarkable behavior: mobility, agility, dexterity and speed. We use sensor-based controls and computation to unlock the capabilities of complex mechanisms. Our world-class development teams take projects from initial concept to proof-of-principle prototyping to build-test-build engineering, to field testing and low-rate production.
Organizations worldwide, from DARPA, the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps to Sony Corporation turn to Boston Dynamics for advice and for help creating the most advanced robots on Earth.
In December 2013 the company was acquired by Alphabet Inc, owners of Goog…
But soft, what’s that I hear? From around the clearing. Look! Oh Heaven Forfend, they come!…
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