Did you guys see the 38 second mark? We can't even kick it down! It is just waiting for Skynet to go online...
Is this as big a deal as it seems to me ?? I had no idea we were that far along with stabilization/gyro/balance
So much for the superior Japanese technology vs US technology. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTlV0Y5yAww
From what I understand Boston Dynamics was an off shot of a robotics expert at MIT. He had an Euraka moment when he figured out that a early IBM PC has more computing power than a bee. A bee can fly and the PC didn't have enough brains to control flight. He figured out that biologic brains use analog logic not digital logic. The electronics for his robots use very simple circuits that use a hierarchy to control each limb seperately. There is one circuit in the limb that keeps the limb straight to support it. The next circuit higher up will tell the lower circuit to lift the limb up to move forward etc. When his robots first get turned on they don't know how to walk they kind of struggle to stand up once up they start to move forward and then refine the gait with time. There was a TV special on it several years ago I'll see if I can find a link.
Exactly! It's freaky looking and the fact that it is doing all of that on it's own, very neat but imagine that thing coming after you with a huge gun on top!
This explains why people are shown accelerating it in one direction or the other. (including sideways)
