BB Gadgets: Big Dog robotic pack mule on ice and snow

From BB Gadgets:

This new video of "Big Dog," the amazing quadrupedal robot from Boston Dynamics, shows of its latest tricks: the ability to walk through snow and even over ice, catching itself when it slips and falls. Its normal gait is unnatural, but when it starts to scramble to recover it looks eerily real.

Link

Scoop: New video of BDI's Big Dog robot [Spectrum.IEEE.org via Gizmodo] (Thanks, Douglas!!)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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peebz

Couldn’t they have got it to carry something other than bags of wasps? That buzzing would really start to annoy me after a couple of miles…
Rutiger

I think Joel over at gadgets beat you to it.
jody

Too bad the thing sounds like an asthmatic lawnmower, not to mention it doesn’t walk very fast.
pork musket

*Another* duplicate from BB Gadgets.
shannonpatrick17

Quick someone kick it to see if it’s stable!
ah ok, good
mdpaustin

Yes, but will you use it for Energy, Food, Smithore or Crystite?
djam

very impressive, it knows how to stablise and avoid falling over.
jcarlile

all I could think was ‘wheezing mule’…
GammaBlog

It needs a big fake furry coat for its voyage to the uncanny valley.
Takuan

wow, that’s some balance recovery sensors.

Imagine meeting that in the woods…alone.