Feb 25 2011BigDog's Creators Get DARPA Grant To Build A Faster, Human-Hunting Robotic Cheetah
Remember BigDog from Boston Dynamics? Ha, how could you forget, it haunts our dreams at night (well at least mine anyways). And now the creators have been awarded a grant from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to build 'Cheetah', a smaller, faster-than-human version capable of hunting. Basically, a fully-functional killer version of this guy. Greaaaaaaaat. *jams a porkchop between your buttcheeks*
As the name implies, Cheetah is designed to be a four-legged robot with a flexible spine and articulated head (and potentially a tail) that runs faster than the fastest human. In addition to raw speed, Cheetah's makers promise that it will have the agility to make tight turns so that it can "zigzag to chase and evade" and be able to stop on a dime.
Aside from its unspecified military applications, Cheetah's makers see it galloping to the rescue and building a brave new future in the fields of "emergency response, firefighting, advanced agriculture and vehicular travel."
So -- is anybody here still convinced the robot apocalypse is just a make-believe story I tell my dogs before bed so they don't get off the couch in the middle of the night? If so, raise your hand. Skynet -- please take all these @$$holes first and give the rest of us a fighting chance. Now -- who knows the best way to kill a robotic cheetah? *pointing* You, with the glasses. "With kindness?" Yeaaaaaaaah, you try that. Then, while it's busy tearing all your limbs off, I'll shoot it with a rocket launcher. ROCKET LAUNCHER, MORON, ROCKET LAUNCHER WAS THE ANSWER.
Darpa's Cheetah-Bot Designed to Chase Human Prey [wired]
Thanks to Kristen and jdivo, who want to know if you throw a robotic cheetah if it always lands on its feet. SPOILER: No. It lands on your face. With its claws out. Then your face disappears.
Reader Comments
1. -Lmega5- - February 25, 2011 5:19 PM
cheetor!
2. http://www.ConfessionsOfAManwhore.com - February 25, 2011 5:27 PM
Terminator spongebob rides this into battle, right before he crushes your human skull underfoot
3. Thedarkrabbit - February 25, 2011 5:31 PM
Wasn't this done in the Val Kilmer Mars movie? AIMEE, the killer robo-cat?
http://www.listoid.com/image/140/list_2_140_20101210_032153_525.jpg
4. Fjord Prefect - February 25, 2011 5:47 PM
Oh yay. Robots that can catch humans. I'll sleep well tonight.
5. x - February 25, 2011 5:51 PM
zoids!!!!!
6. the_tof - February 25, 2011 5:52 PM
Dude, that's totally poser Saber Tooth Tiger Zord which in turn was totally poser Voltron. Nothing's sacred anymore =(
7. lands on my feed - February 25, 2011 6:05 PM
its spelled feet, not feed.
8. Max Boivin - February 25, 2011 6:25 PM
I want one... for... rescuing people from... eh... burning building... *looking at guard dog* prepare yourselr to be all out of work soon...
9. Shite my pants - February 25, 2011 6:27 PM
Can you imagine the destructive power this would have with one of those Navy lasers 5 articles down attached to its head? Runs up screaming "PEW PEW" as it kills us, adding insult to injury A.K.A. death.
10. dave - February 25, 2011 6:43 PM
inb4 snow crash
11. Burl Ives - February 25, 2011 6:50 PM
Go Voltron Force! and I'll form the HEAD!
12. ForealDoe - February 25, 2011 7:43 PM
just make it extremely curious, that should O.D. it. cats always O.D. on curiosity, i've been told.
13. Mr. Cow - February 25, 2011 9:32 PM
Fahrenheit 451, anyone?
14. Kijeblade - February 25, 2011 11:39 PM
And yet you still wont post instructions on how to build an NNEMP...
15. SteveH - February 26, 2011 12:08 AM
looks like Ravage from the 80'sTransformers cartoon when is it going to transform into a cassette tape to fit into Soundwave's chest?
16. Nataya - February 26, 2011 5:38 AM
'building a brave new future in the fields of "emergency response, firefighting, advanced agriculture and vehicular travel."' Anything with the phrase "brave new" automatically sounds disasterous to me!
17. Nataya - February 26, 2011 5:40 AM
Whops...disastrous!
18. gee sun heit - February 26, 2011 7:58 AM
I hope Russia makes a bear version. KILLER MECH BEARS!
19. Billbo - February 26, 2011 10:28 AM
So, where's Voltron?
20. tophoo - February 26, 2011 12:15 PM
the Rat Thing cometh!
21. Uncle Stalin - February 26, 2011 5:59 PM
Mechanical Dog from Fahrenheit 451, anyone?
22. bnbnmm - February 26, 2011 9:12 PM
http://mcaf.ee/9d785
23. Matticus Rex - February 26, 2011 9:45 PM
The Rat Thing from Snow Crash!
24. Guy Montag - February 27, 2011 12:27 AM
Yep, that's pretty much a Mechanical Hound.
25. Puddintaine - February 27, 2011 3:27 PM
It would be awesome to walk this around the block with a steel chain leash
26. Auzzeren - February 27, 2011 11:55 PM
Haha, sick. I want one... Just as long as I never have to see that bigdog again. *Shivers*
27. Willie Dixon - February 28, 2011 1:33 AM
Looks more like old school Ravage.
28. Jazzman - February 28, 2011 7:37 AM
I wonder will it be able to play music and pop out of giant walkman like ravage???
29. aafd - February 28, 2011 9:19 AM
http://mcaf.ee/49c68
input this URL:
you can find many cheap and high stuff
30. M. Burns - February 28, 2011 9:30 AM
@ 13, 21, 24
That's exactly what I thought. A mechanical animal to hunt down(and destroy) humans, at the bidding of other humans, or the highest bidder(probably also human). We are all going to die.
31. John - February 28, 2011 10:02 AM
@15 dude, you nailed it! I agree!
32. Ster - February 28, 2011 10:19 AM
I think they mean turn on a dime not stop.
33. whatwho - February 28, 2011 1:11 PM
Totally stolen from the novel Snow Crash. Fail. Unless they make it, then we all die when it becomes self-aware and decides we're too failure prone to be sustainable.
34. Browntown - March 1, 2011 5:03 PM
(Hank is looking at a list of supervillains in a Guild of Calamitous Intent handbook)
Hank: Man, this is the coolest book ever! There's a guy in here who guards his headquarters with robot cheetahs!
The Monarch: Oh yeah, the Zoo Creeper. Oh, hey, am I in there?
35. stine - March 2, 2011 8:16 AM
Reminds me of art by Hijame Sorayama, but G-rated.