Comments on: Boston Dynamics unveils brick-hurling robot monster

By: Petzl

Petzl — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 10:40:00 +0000

THEY TOOKER JERBS

By: baronkarza

baronkarza — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 04:39:00 +0000

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

By: Tsv1138

Tsv1138 — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 01:57:00 +0000

Go home scientists, you are drunk.*

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

By: Maneki Nico

Maneki Nico — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 00:31:00 +0000

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

By: Michael Polo

Michael Polo — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 23:47:00 +0000

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.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 23:43:00 +0000

Now that would be the pinnacle of The Art of War.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 23:39:00 +0000

I only have to outrun you.

That is, if it only has one cinderblock. [flees]

By: mindfu

mindfu — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 23:03:00 +0000

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

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 22:23:00 +0000

No, no. That would be ridiculous!

Those were clearly cinder blocks.

By: Bradley Robinson

Bradley Robinson — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 22:16:00 +0000

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

A great week for machinery.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 22:12:00 +0000

It’s a veritable over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder.

By: lavardera

lavardera — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 22:08:00 +0000

Anybody else worried that this beasty is throwing concrete blocks OVER ITS SHOULDER – at who? US, the good guys following it.

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 22:07:00 +0000

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

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:55:00 +0000

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.

By: bkad

bkad — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:51:00 +0000

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?

By: andygates

andygates — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:31:00 +0000

Competitive Robot Fleeing?

By: simonbarsinister

simonbarsinister — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:19:00 +0000

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”

By: rvernon

rvernon — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:17:00 +0000

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

By: timquinn

timquinn — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:05:00 +0000

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

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:01:00 +0000

And eventually a robot that will sit in meetings consuming coffee and donuts. Then the circle shall be complete.

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:01:00 +0000

Teaching it to play the penny whistle will be trivial.

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:59:00 +0000

Great, a robot that can chase you down and use a terrifying metal claw to rip your nuts off.

By: Gary Melancon

Gary Melancon — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:23:00 +0000

My good buddy works at BD as an EE. He’s totally cool about building skynet.

By: finley

finley — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:50:00 +0000

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/

By: Jimbo2K7

Jimbo2K7 — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:40:00 +0000

Ignatz? Is that you?

By: allium

allium — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:04:00 +0000

Throwing soldiers at other soldiers would definitely influence morale.

By: IronEdithKidd

IronEdithKidd — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:58:00 +0000

Alcohol.

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:56:00 +0000

I think the final robot will build a four-legged robot with a throwing arm.

By: SamSam

SamSam — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:44:00 +0000

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.

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:42:00 +0000

Or at least throwing bricks at a trapped soldier.