Boston Dynamics’ Latest Robot Dog Is Slightly Less Terrifying

Megalith

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Robot maker Boston Dynamics, now owned by Japanese telecom and tech giant SoftBank, just published a short YouTube clip featuring a new, more advanced version of its SpotMini robot. The new SpotMini looks much more polished and less grotesque, like a real-life cross between a Pixar animation and a robot out of a Neill Blomkamp vision of the future, thanks in part to series of bright yellow plates covering its legs and body.
 
That looks like an appliance from the 1970's, shape color and all. Couldn't they make it look more modern?
 
I think it looks cool, but damn it you guys... now I have the Cheetahmen theme song in my head

300px-Cheetahmen_Sprites.png
 
That movement is so smooth and seems extremely stable. Not that they were not stable before, but surely not as smooth.
 
The Japanese influence is evident. Boston Dynamics design always came across as aggressively utilitarian. Japanese robot design, on the other hand, tends towards clean lines.

The combination here is pretty insidious.
 
Great for surveillance I think.
Sensor here and here, out goes the dog to scare intruders (maybe real dogs too hehe)
 
That movement is so smooth and seems extremely stable. Not that they were not stable before, but surely not as smooth.
I'm guessing due to what appears to be the use of electric controls instead of hydraulic. If you ask me this thing is still plenty creepy looking though, precisely because of how agile it does move and how clean it is, like it's ready to chase you down, look at you with a quirky side glance, then pop open a flap extending an integrated concealed rifle and blow your brains out.
 
Lucky dog get's a makeover. Now to mount a .50 cal on it.

Hehehe, I just popped into this thread to say the same thing. Won't be "slightly less terrifying" with a gun on its back, and retractable claws. :D
 
The version shown in the vid looks like a four legged knee ramming machine. I'd hate to be in its way when it is on full sprint.
 
Battery tech unless it improves a lot. Is going to hold back what robotics can do.
 
Uhh, I would say that is more terrifying - looks pretty agile. Forget pepper spray, looks like we are going to need personal EMP devices.
 
That would be so easy to weaponize. Buy 12 of them and mount a pair of shotguns up top on each with fully autonomous target detection and firing capability. Have four of them patrolling the grounds on your remote island estate on a rotational basis at any given time while the others are charging. Oh, and wear a monocle and a white suit and hang out by your pool with bikini clad models while you await someone to try and infiltrate your lair.

Seriously though, these thing are getting scary good. Weaponized robotic guard dogs aren’t that far off now as to what’s possible with the tech... Shades of the semi-autonomous guard units in Snow Crash.
 
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