Boston Dynamics unveils brick-hurling robot monster

Dynamic Robot Manipulation [Boston Dynamics]

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oasisob1

Absolute worst weaponization of a robot, ever.
- Michael Rosefield
  
  Altering the environment and getting through obstructions merely makes their other weapons that much more formidable!
- Sigmund_Jung
  
  But I do see a future in a new Olympic sport.
  - andygates
    
    Competitive Robot Fleeing?
    - Donald Petersen
      
      I only have to outrun you.
      
      That is, if it only has one cinderblock. [flees]
- simonbarsinister
  
  Boston Dynamics is starting with a rock throwing robot, and on the planning board it will soon be followed by a club wielding robot, then a spear throwing robot, a sword swinging robot, an arrow shooting robot, then an armored horse riding javelin holding robot, then a gun shooting robot, a jet-fighter pilot robot, and finally a tank robot. These things must follow a natural progression.
  - Boundegar
    
    Cool! Like Civilization IV! Can they build the Great Lighthouse too?
  - oasisob1
    
    I think the final robot will build a four-legged robot with a throwing arm.
  - Preston Sturges
    
    And eventually a robot that will sit in meetings consuming coffee and donuts. Then the circle shall be complete.
    - simonbarsinister
      
      One day in the far future: Robots sitting around a board room discussing a chart propped up on the table end:
      
      C5P9: “And you see, gentlebots, this new model is able to carry supplies and manipulate weapons.”
      R10D10: “Amazing. And what about cost? Is it expensive?”
      C5P9: “That is the beauty of it. It is self-replicating. Just put two of them together in the proper configurations and they will generate a new one. No factory, no assembly. They just keep making new ones in the field.”
      R10D10: “But what about power? Something like that must require tremendous batteries or fuel cells, right?”
      C5P9: “Nope. No batteries at all. It can convert organics into fuel on demand in the field!”
      R10D10: “This will revolutionize warfare! What are we calling it?”
      C5P9: “We call it BigApe”
John Aspinall

I, for one, welcome our new ballistic construction material wielding overlords.

Someone had to say it.
http://twitter.com/randywalters Randy Walters

I’ve seen it all before… first come the “oohs!” and the “ahs!”, and later comes the screaming and the running…

Inevitably, it will all end in tears.
Napkins

But I needed that brick!
Felton / Moderator

That’s going to put a lot of brick hurlers out of their jobs.
- Petzl
  
  THEY TOOKER JERBS
Luther Blissett

Why do these designs always remember me of HalfLife creatures?
BookGuy

It’s just practicing for its chance for revenge against the guy who kicked it in an earlier video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNZPRsrwumQ
http://twitter.com/spleenal Spleenal

… so solving all those “there’s no brick throwing robots” problems we used to have to live with.
http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Agenbroad/100002463876063 James Agenbroad

You call that building a wall? Bad robot! No biscuit. err no oil change?
- http://www.facebook.com/victor.jimenezmerino Víctor Jiménez Merino
  
  No cookies!
- IronEdithKidd
  
  Alcohol.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=548686639 Geoff Whitman

HOLY SHIT, DID THAT ROBOT JUST THROW A BRICK AT ME?!
- Brainspore
  
  No, no. That would be ridiculous!
  
  Those were clearly cinder blocks.
http://twitter.com/bazilisk Sylvia

That’s awesome. I wonder how precise its aim is. It’s a prototype, it’s not for use in the field yet – it’s just showing that they have the ability to build a robot that can maintain balance all throughout the many changes to its center of gravity from the movement of that heavy thing.
- Sigmund_Jung
  
  Have you seen the pole throwing quadcopters? These things will be very precise at some point
oasisob1

Sure, I suppose it COULD be used to clear debris and rubble in a search and rescue environment, but if that were the case, would it need to actually throw the bricks, or just pick them up and put them down somewhere else? This is a weapon. A crappy one, but a weapon.
- Tim Drage
  
  its an arm.
  - Tim Drage
    
    a good one, but an arm
  - http://www.dylanmccall.com/ dylan-m
    
    The robot is armed.
    
    There, now you’re both right.
http://forresto.com/ Forrest O.

I’d be impressed if there were another one catching them.
gws

Well, this looks useful.
DeeZed

Definitely useful for clearing obstructions for a squad or for rescuing a trapped soldier.
- Boundegar
  
  Or at least throwing bricks at a trapped soldier.
  - allium
    
    Throwing soldiers at other soldiers would definitely influence morale.
    - Donald Petersen
      
      Now that would be the pinnacle of The Art of War.
http://www.facebook.com/victor.jimenezmerino Víctor Jiménez Merino

It´s practising for the Future Robot Intifadah!
Robomules will down drones hurling stones!
- http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis
  
  That is actually a very good idea.
welcomeabored

It can hurl bricks and Riverdance at the same time. Take that, Michael Flatley!

The ‘monster’ looks more like a pack mule, which I think is the army’s official mascot.
- Preston Sturges
  
  Teaching it to play the penny whistle will be trivial.
fnc

Finally, we’ve wedded the stubbornness of mules with the strength of elephants. What could possibly go wrong?
dave3

I’d like to see a video where this robot teams up with that panda that throws everything off the office desk.
http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis

Now link it to a rat brain and we’re off!
http://boingboing.net/2013/02/28/rat-brains-linked-in-first-eve.html
SamSam

Hmmm… so they’ve invented a catapult. I’m sure the Romans would have been quite impressed.

…I kid, of course. To all those who were thinking along the same sarcastic lines I was (i.e. all the comments above), what’s key here is that this is a quadruped robot that can lift up a large heavy weight, swing that weight around, and release it, all while maintaining its balance. Yes, a tractor can do that as well, after a fashion, but a tractor weighs many times more than this. If the robot weren’t dynamically adapting its stance constantly, it would tip over.

This is more a test of the stabilization and versatility of the robot than a move towards replacing armies with brick throwers.
Jimbo2K7

Ignatz? Is that you?
finley

Back in the 1990s, Survival Research Labs made a wonderful machine that launches six-foot-long 2″ x 4″s up to 800 feet. It is officially called the Pitching Machine but nicknamed the Lumbershooter:

http://srl.org/machines/pitching/
http://www.facebook.com/gary.melancon.71 Gary Melancon

My good buddy works at BD as an EE. He’s totally cool about building skynet.
- bkad
  
  I think youtube videos like this are some of the most effective recruitment videos I’ve seen. Who wouldn’t want to work on things like that?
Preston Sturges

Great, a robot that can chase you down and use a terrifying metal claw to rip your nuts off.
- Brainspore
  
  It’s about one-millionth as dangerous as those remote-controlled military robots that have treads and guns attached, but somehow this one just seems creepier.
timquinn

Are we really going to stand here and watch it get better?
rvernon

Yesssss…. Throwing the dead bodies of the enemy out of the way so we can proceed with the death march. Conan’s statement about what is best in life needs a slight modification:

Crush your enemies
Have them THROWN around you
And to hear the lamentation of their women
Preston Sturges

Wow. for once nobody wants to have sex with it.
lavardera

Anybody else worried that this beasty is throwing concrete blocks OVER ITS SHOULDER – at who? US, the good guys following it.
- Brainspore
  
  It’s a veritable over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder.
Bradley Robinson

A brick throwing robot and an oreo de-icing gizmo.

A great week for machinery.
http://jimbeach.net mindfu

It’s like they want us all to die horribly.
Michael Polo

Judging from how their earlier robots were self-balancing, I’m sure this one would be independently figuring out how to fling any weight and shape object without flipping itself over in the process.
http://twitter.com/ManekiNico Maneki Nico

Oh man, if they ever reboot Robot Wars, it is going to be AWESOME!
Tsv1138

Go home scientists, you are drunk.*

(*drunkenness implied from both being in Boston, and the belligerent brick wielding robot)
baronkarza

Now they just need to build smaller and more deadly robots for this one to throw… Fastball Special!!!