I find amazing how difficult it is to successfully perform apparently trivial tasks such as walking.<p>There's more information about the 'LittleDog' on the Boston Dynamics website: <a href="http://www.bostondynamics.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.bostondynamics.com/</a><p>I was really impressed 2 years ago by their video of the 'BigDog':
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww</a> (check out t=40s)
Anyone with some robotics experience able to explain more about the floating base inverse dynamics control system and what sort of accommodations make it so much more powerful than PD?
Is it just me or does that thing look like a headcrab: <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/54/Headcrab.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/54/Headcrab.jpg</a>
Its been said before, but needs to be repeated every time:<p>The implications of this line of R&D are horrific.<p>Removing the risk of say, US soldier casualties, combined with media control, and with "merely" the current level of inhumanity of political leadership, would be a very ugly mix indeed.<p>So yeah, its hard for me to get excited about the tech in this case.
The most effective thing to get me off my ass and studying is to see something I should conceivably be able to create, but have no idea where I'd begin.<p>Can someone link to a good introduction to how the control systems for something like this work?
Very impressive. Sci-fi stuff.<p>I just found the big stair demo cheap. That "jumping" behavior looked hard-coded (and it was implied by the narrator) and seemed to possibly damage the robot. Still impressive, but a lot less so than the other demonstrations.
So inspiring. Reminds me of the Disney movie "The Brave Little Toaster":<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbBEfZ8fK9Y" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbBEfZ8fK9Y</a>