#bostondynamics

#bostondynamics

Are Boston Dynamics' Robot Dogs Good for Anything Real?We've seen Spot, the quadruped robot from Boston Dynamics, performing some amazing feats, like dancing, marching in a halftime show, and recreating a Rolling Stones video.Sure they're entertaining, but somewhere along the way you may have wondered if they can do anything useful. That is, something necessary that clients might be willing to pay for.

Spot Robot Dances in a Halftime ShowIn case you have been wondering why college tuition is so high these days, behold the Mizzou halftime show Saturday. The spotlight performer was a Spot robot from Boston Dynamics. Watch him shake his tail to The Jackson 5's song "Dancing Machine."The University of Missouri College of Engineeringacquired their first Spot robot during the spring 2021 semester, and now they gave at least three. The student engineers have been programming their robots to do various things, like pushups and possibly some football moves, but chose to debut Spot's talents to the public with the dance team and marching band. A good time was had by all.But then again, maybe they should have taught those robot dogs more football skills. Mizzou lost that game to Tennessee, 24-62. No one in Missouri is thinking about that, though, since the robot dog stole the show and gave us a viral video.(Image: Mizzou Engineering)#SpotRobot #robot #UniversityofMissouri #dance #cheerleader #FootballGame #Mizzou #BostonDynamics

Outtakes and Flubs from Boston Dynamics' Robot ParkourLast week, we were impressed by a video of Boston Dynamics' Atlas robots running a parkour course. If that video gave you a sense of dread about the capabilities of our new robot overlords, rest assured that it took a lot of practice and crashes before they got it right. Witness this:

Robot ParkourWe carry a vision of robots that are less-than copies of human beings. Human-shaped robots in that vision are top heavy and cannot balance themselves as fast or well as a human, which can bepretty funny. So far, the most successful are those that don't even pretend to be human, like the Roomba or one-armed factory robots.But Boston Dynamics keeps improving the human powers of their human-shaped robots. The latest edition of their Atlas robot can balance itself well enough to run a parkour course that looks like a cross between a dog agility run and a gymnastics facility, all the while resembling a human wearing a backpack so much that it gives us the uncanny willies.#BostonDynamics #robot #parkour

Xiaomi Unveiled A $1,500 Four-Legged Robot Named CyberDogMove over, Spot! Chinese tech firm Xiaomi has just released an experimental, open-sourced quadruped robot named 'CyberDog.'Xiaomi's CyberDog looks similar to Boston Dynamic's Spot robot, although it is physically smaller at 15.7 inches and weighing 31 lb compared to Spot's 24 inch height and 72 lb weight. It moves at speeds of up to 7.15 mph, roughly twice of Spot's 3.5 mph speed).Priced at about $1,500, CyberDog is just a fraction of the price of Spot which sells for $75,000 apiece. Xiaomi is limiting its 1,000 initial units for sale to fans, engineers, and robotic enthusiasts in hopes that early-adopters will add to the development to the robot.The "brain" of CyberDog is Nvidia's Jetson Xavier NX module consisting of 384 CUDA cores, 48 Tensor cores, 6 Carmel CPU cores and two dedicated deep learning cores. The modules analyzes data from 11 sensors and instruct Xiaomi's custom-developed servos to move the robot and even perform tricks like back flips.Sensors on the robot's body include Intel RealSense D450 depth sensor to enable object tracking and obstacle avoidance, AI interactive cameras, and binocular ultra wide fisheye cameras to help it navigate.Images: Xiaomi#robot #CyberDog #Spot #quadrupedrobot #dog #BostonDynamics

Spot Robots Autonomously Explore Martian-Like CavernOne day, hopefully we’ll explore underground caves on Mars which may harbor preserved remains or even living microbial life but for now, NASA scientists are preparing by training the dog-like Spot robots in caves here on Earth.NASA’s BRAILLE (Biologic and Resource Analog Investigations in Low Light Environments) collaborated with Boston Dynamics and JPL’s robotic team CoSTAR to explore the Valentine Cave in the Lava Beds National Monument in California.Initial demonstrations with a team of the quadruped Spot robots show the advantages of legged robots in exploring the uneven cavern terrains autonomously, with each robot being able to carry special instruments to detect, collect, and analyze scientifically interesting samples.#SpotRobot #robot #Mars #NASA #JPL #BostonDynamics #cave #lavatube #LavaBedsNationalMonument #ValentineCave

Boston Dynamics Robot Dog Spot Challenged BTS to a Dance-OffBoston Dynamics' robot Spot has got some smooth moves! Watch as the company challenged K-pop sensation BTS to a dance-off with seven Spot robots dancing to the band's 2020 hit song IONIQ: I'm On It.In a behind-the-scenes blog post, Boston Dynamics roboticists explained how they created the dance:Monica Thomas, a professional choreographer and former dancer, took the lead on choreography for “Spot’s On It”, as she did for Boston Dynamics’ previous dance videos. Outlining a dance routine for robots, she notes, presents a whole separate set of challenges from traditional choreography. For one thing, she’s in constant communication with Boston Dynamics engineers to explore which steps the robots are physically able to do. And, of course, Spot has twice as many legs as a human dancer. “When I try to replay the choreography on my own body, my knees bend the wrong way, even if I put myself on all fours,” Thomas says. “I have less knowledge about what things even could look like, and so I have a lot more flexibility about what it does look like.”...Thomas handed off dance steps to Jakob Welner, a robotic movement consultant based in Denmark, who animated them in Autodesk Maya. “You can do anything you want in the software, artistically,” Welner says. “But as soon as you want it to work on a robot, you need to comply with physics, and you need to comply with the mechanics and dynamics of the robot.”#BostonDynamics #robot #SpotRobot #BTS #dance #KPopView the full video clip below:

LS3: The Marine's Robot HorseYou might have seen Spot, the robot dog developed by Boston Dynamics. But did you know that the cute (well, relatively cute) bot actually had much creepy precursors named the BigDog and the Legged Squad Support System (LS3) robots.The DARPA-funded LS3 was to function as a pack mule, able to carry 400 lb (180 kg) of equipment for a squad of marines and travel a distance of 20 miles without refueling. And thus, Boston Dynamics built it in the approximate shape and size of a horse.The LS3 responded to voice commands, including those to autonomously follow a human controller along a path. During a training exercise, one marine company nicknamed their robot, "Cujo" and noted that the robot could reach places difficult to reach by all-terrain vehicles. When the robot fell over due to steep hills, it was able to right itself most of the time.In 2015, the Marines discontinued the LS3 program, because the gas-powered robot was too loud for stealthy movements, and that it would be difficult to repair in the fields.#robot #LS3 #horse #BostonDynamics #DARPA #militaryequipment #logistics