"BigDog" has been seen on the web a lot, but I just now found these new = ones. And they are slick ! Click on the video links at lower right of each page.
LittleDog: =
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climbing bot: =
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enjoy! JCDReally cool robot videos - LittleDog and wall climbing bot ...
Jun 04, 2007
3 Replies
They are the one company that makes me believe that robotics may someday actually be used outside of a controled enviroment. When I first saw Big Dog survive that kick, I know my mouth hung open for a while. I anxiously await their next generation of robots.
Joe Dunfee
I've been expecting that for almost twenty years. Raibert did some great work in the 1980s at the MIT Leg Lab, but then he left MIT to form a startup company, and it was many years before Boston Dynamics started doing interesting dynamic robots again.
I did some work in that area back in the early 1990s, but we didn't have enough compute power back then to get anywhere near real time. Now we do. I have a patent in this area. (#5,644,204)
How it survives a kick is well understood. The robot has a full
6DOF inertial system (which isn't that expensive any more), and computes the zero moment point (look it up). Then it tries to get at least three legs placed in a triangle that covers the zero moment point. If it can do that, it won't fall.John Nagle
And they are slick !
Don't forget RHex:
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One cool thing about Boston Dynamics is their close connection to the academic world. With strong academic roots (being an offshoot of the MIT leg lab), Boston Dynamics still remains very closely connected to acadamia. If you search Google Scholar - you'll find many papers that have surfaced from within the company. Also, both RiSE and LittleDog are being worked on in conjunction with a number of other universities.
-Michael
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