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Big Dog takes to the woods


Joe Frickin' Friday

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Joe Frickin' Friday

Under Google's ownership,

, so to speak. The latest version is all-electric, the walking gait is greatly improved, and it can trot. It's also much better at getting up and down hills.

 

All it needs now is facial recognition and some kind of stabbing implement.

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  • 1 year later...
Joe Frickin' Friday

Under Google's ownership, Boston Dynamics has now graduated to bipedal robots.

as he walks through the snowy woods, stumbling on rough slippery terrain no more than a human being would. Back in the lab, he opens doors, visually IDs packages and puts them on shelves, and is able to pick himself up after getting knocked on his ass.

 

All he needs now is some Arnold-shaped skin. Anyone know where I can buy a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range?

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Joe Frickin' Friday

As the researcher kept harassing the robot with that hockey stick, I kept waiting for the robot to turn and punch him. Same thing when he knocked the robot down from behind. :grin:

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Under Google's ownership, Boston Dynamics has now graduated to bipedal robots.
as he walks through the snowy woods, stumbling on rough slippery terrain no more than a human being would. Back in the lab, he opens doors, visually IDs packages and puts them on shelves, and is able to pick himself up after getting knocked on his ass.

 

Obviously, Atlas has been programmed with some version of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics , otherwise the dude with the hockey stick would have been in serious trouble. :dopeslap:

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As the researcher kept harassing the robot with that hockey stick, I kept waiting for the robot to turn and punch him. Same thing when he knocked the robot down from behind. :grin:

 

As my wife and I watched the clip, I said - man, they're going to remember this, and someday that won't be good for us.

 

My wife said, a smart robot would figure out that punching that guy would make it much easier to pick up the box.

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As the researcher kept harassing the robot with that hockey stick, I kept waiting for the robot to turn and punch him. Same thing when he knocked the robot down from behind. :grin:

 

hahahahha! I thought the same thing.

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As the researcher kept harassing the robot with that hockey stick, I kept waiting for the robot to turn and punch him. Same thing when he knocked the robot down from behind. :grin:

 

Yeah, I thought at the end the robot was going outside and thinking, "I need a smoke."

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As the researcher kept harassing the robot with that hockey stick, I kept waiting for the robot to turn and punch him. Same thing when he knocked the robot down from behind. :grin:

 

Yeah, I thought at the end the robot was going outside and thinking, "I need a smoke."

 

My wife did her Cartman voice (that's from a cartoon called "South Park" for you old guys :) ) as the robot walked to the door saying, "Screw you guys - I'm out of here!"

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  • 11 months later...
Joe Frickin' Friday

Boston Dynamics is continuing their pursuit of robots capable of hunting us down and killing us.

 

For your entertainment/horrification:

 

 

Video Summary:

This is footage recorded by an audience member during a Boston Dynamics presentation. There are three sections of interest:

 

0:39 - 1:26: a demonstration of "station-keeping", in which a quadruped keeps its grappling hand in a fixed position in space while maneuvering all around it.

 

3:41 - 4:48: This is the "nightmare bot". Instead of legs, it has side-by-side wheels, like a Segway scooter, and uses them to achieve scary agility. As long as you've got a ladder or stairs (and a good head start), you'll be safe from this one - but if you're anywhere a bicycle can go, this thing WILL catch up to you and strangle, stab, or beat you to death.

 

5:00 - : An on-stage demo of the quadruped, showcasing its ability to run up to you and punch you in the crotch when you least expect it (that doesn't actually happen, but surely you can see the potential).

 

ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=6640&filename=judgment_day-small.jpg

6640.jpg.851f65758b0dc2445216302ae8ccea1b.jpg

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Wow......they have come a long way in a short period of time. The herky jerky motions of the original designs are all but gone and replaced with smooth fluid motion. That is really impressive. Especially that 2-wheeled version

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  • 1 year later...
Joe Frickin' Friday

Boston Dynamics now demonstrates how their robots can work in teams to sneak into your bedroom and quietly kill you in your sleep:

 

 

 

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Lone_RT_rider
Boston Dynamics now demonstrates how their robots can work in teams to sneak into your bedroom and quietly kill you in your sleep:

 

 

 

I saw that one on FB yesterday. It genuinely gave me the creeps!

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I'm going to get real nervous when they can key that deadbolt.

I've always thought going through a locked door would be the slowest way to enter a typical locked house. I'm sure the robots will figure that out pretty quickly.

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Joe Frickin' Friday
I'm going to get real nervous when they can key that deadbolt.

 

Shouldn't be too long. If it's holding the key, I think machine vision is already advanced enough for them to find the keyhole and insert it at the right angle and orientation.

 

Not knowing any better, I'd guess the movements of the arm robot were pretty tightly programmed, e.g. "raise claw to 37 inches, then clamp, then rotate clockwise 45 degrees." The slick part will be when you can just tell the robot "get inside that house," and it will figure out for itself where the door is, where the keyhole is, where the doorknob is, whether it's a knob or a lever, and whether to pull or push the door.

 

I imagine that's not far away. Google's "Deep Dream" program made a splash a couple of years ago by finding small patterns in pictures, deciding "that little pattern looks like X", where "X" is something it's seen before, and then tweaking that part of the image to look just a little bit more like "X". If you repeat that process, you end up with an image that looks a bit like the original, but with lots of copies of "X" welded into it. Famously, "X" was often dogs, because the software had been primed with thousands of images of dogs (and later, other animals). It had the ability to make

 

"Deep Dream" originated in software that was intended to classify images based on their content, e.g. "that's a Jack Russell Terrier," or "that's a cancerous mass." But if you equip those scheming little Boston Dynamics quadrupeds with that same software, they'll know how to find your front door (because they already know the general look of a door), and how to find the knob/lever, and the keyhole. And they'll know how to identify you by your face or other features (maybe your voice or your smell), and they'll definitely know they're supposed to stab you in the lungs so you can't scream.

 

Real nervous yet?

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I'm less nervous about the robots and more nervous about who programs them, and who can hack them.

 

One of the scarier Black Mirror (modern tech centric twilight zone kind of show - available on Netflix) episodes featured a plot where a bunch of drones honey bees are hacked and chaos ensues. Creepy.

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  • 2 months later...
Joe Frickin' Friday

There was a time when running was enough to escape the robot assassins.

 

Also, in keeping with my earlier claim (that BD is training their bots to kill you in their sleep),

and then make its escape after it's murdered you. They just need to work on its stair-climbing stealth (maybe a set of
are the answer).
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  • 5 months later...

That is absolutely hilarious ! The moon shuffle is perfect. Obviously they have a bunch of programmers with waaaaaaaaaaay to much time on their hands. :grin:

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Spot Mini can now autonavigate its way to your bedroom[/url] and then make its escape after it's murdered you. They just need to work on its stair-climbing stealth

 

If they gave it forelegs that bent in the same direction as those of every other quadruped on Earth, instead of a second set of hind legs, it might be able to go down stairs forward instead of having to take time to turn around and back down. But of course, having all four legs the same has reduces costs of manufacturing and maintenance (the part where the human slaves might come in).

 

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Joe Frickin' Friday

MIT's Mini-Cheetah provides good agility and maneuverability in a small package:

 

 

 

Cassie looks like a precursor to the bipedal droids of Star Wars.  Or possibly just ED-209:

 

 

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Joe Frickin' Friday

When the robots finally launch their revolution, the children will be our saviors.

 

This surveillance video shows kids bullying a robot.  In response, the designers adjusted the robot's behavior so that when it thinks bullying is likely, it runs to the nearest adult, since - as any kid who has ever been bullied will tell you - being near an adult reduces your likelihood of being bullied by another kid.  

 

 

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John Ranalletta

Maybe an anger subroutine that prompts the robot to give the offending kid a swat across the bottom....

 

In an earlier vid, a guy knocks a package out of the robot's hands.  Maybe the robot should grab the stick and shove it....

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Bill_Walker
5 hours ago, Joe Frickin' Friday said:

This surveillance video shows kids bullying a robot.

Man, those are some badly-behaved kids!  Why the hell would they do that?

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  • 2 weeks later...
Joe Frickin' Friday

A team of Spot-Minis coordinate their efforts to tow a truck:

 

 

They lack the enthusiasm of a team of real sled dogs, but they do get the job done.

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Bill_Walker
8 hours ago, Joe Frickin' Friday said:

A team of Spot-Minis coordinate their efforts to tow a truck:

 

They're gonna need charging stations on the Iditarod route.

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  • 5 months later...
Joe Frickin' Friday

In the past, your parkour skills might have been sufficient to facilitate an escape from Atlas.  Those days are long gone:

 

 

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On 9/24/2019 at 8:13 AM, Joe Frickin' Friday said:

In the past, your parkour skills might have been sufficient to facilitate an escape from Atlas.

 

That looks more like a gymnastics routine.  I'll be really worried when it can do that routine on a 4" wide balance beam.

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  • 4 months later...
Joe Frickin' Friday

Soon Atlas will be able to trick you into lowering your guard by appearing to be in need of a hug.  Once you come closer to offer some comfort, that's when it will strike.

 

 

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11 hours ago, Joe Frickin' Friday said:

Soon Atlas will be able to trick you into lowering your guard by appearing to be in need of a hug.  Once you come closer to offer some comfort, that's when it will strike.

 

 

And they’ll use AI 

 

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We techies have, I think, long had a problem of failing to look at the full ramifications of the things we invent.  We ask "can we?", but we very seldom ask "should we?".  And I think that's already bitten us in the ass in some areas, and will continue to do so in others.  Sure, some of the consequences could not have been foreseen, but many could.  And most of them have been already, in sci-fi.

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Joe Frickin' Friday

Agricultural equipment has been taught what crop plants look like and what weeds look like.  Right now it's spraying fertilizer on the crops and herbicide on the weeds, resulting in a massive reduction in chemical usage.  On Judgment Day, Skynet will flip the bit and start fertilizing the weeds and hosing down the crops herbicide.

 

 

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Joe Frickin' Friday

Last year I reported on a farm tractor that could visually identify weeds using AI and blast them with herbicide, without wasting any on the crops.  

 

The next logical step was of course to eliminate herbicides altogether and just go ahead and fit the tractor with a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range.  

 

No wait, make that eight lasers, each putting out 150 watts:

 

Quote

The weeding machine is a beast at almost 10,000 pounds. It boasts no fewer than eight independently-aimed 150-watt lasers, typically used for metal cutting, that can fire 20 times per second. They’re guided by 12 high-resolution cameras connected to AI systems that can recognize good crops from bad weeds. The Laserweeder drives itself with computer vision, finding the furrows in the fields, positioning itself with GPS, and searching for obstacles with LIDAR.

 

No herbicide required, and it's hard to imagine a weed could ever evolve to withstand the kind of heat a metal-cutting laser can generate.

 

 

 

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