Geekologie I Watch Stuff The Superficial

BigDog's Creators Get DARPA Grant To Build A Faster, Human-Hunting Robotic Cheetah

February 25, 2011 / bad ideas, being hunted and killed by a pack of wild robots, bigdog, come this isn't even funny anymore, darpa, do not want, great, holy crap, i mean come on, really?, robot, the apocalypse: it nears, there is no reason to ever build anything like this, what could possibly go wrong, you've gone too far

cheetah-of-death.jpg

Remember BigDog from Boston Dynamics? Ha, how could you forget, it haunts our dreams at night (well at least mine anyways). And now the creators have been awarded a grant from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to build 'Cheetah', a smaller, faster-than-human version capable of hunting. Basically, a fully-functional killer version of this guy. Greaaaaaaaat. *jams a porkchop between your buttcheeks*

As the name implies, Cheetah is designed to be a four-legged robot with a flexible spine and articulated head (and potentially a tail) that runs faster than the fastest human. In addition to raw speed, Cheetah's makers promise that it will have the agility to make tight turns so that it can "zigzag to chase and evade" and be able to stop on a dime.


Aside from its unspecified military applications, Cheetah's makers see it galloping to the rescue and building a brave new future in the fields of "emergency response, firefighting, advanced agriculture and vehicular travel."

So -- is anybody here still convinced the robot apocalypse is just a make-believe story I tell my dogs before bed so they don't get off the couch in the middle of the night? If so, raise your hand. Skynet -- please take all these @$$holes first and give the rest of us a fighting chance. Now -- who knows the best way to kill a robotic cheetah? *pointing* You, with the glasses. "With kindness?" Yeaaaaaaaah, you try that. Then, while it's busy tearing all your limbs off, I'll shoot it with a rocket launcher. ROCKET LAUNCHER, MORON, ROCKET LAUNCHER WAS THE ANSWER.

Darpa's Cheetah-Bot Designed to Chase Human Prey [wired]

Thanks to Kristen and jdivo, who want to know if you throw a robotic cheetah if it always lands on its feet. SPOILER: No. It lands on your face. With its claws out. Then your face disappears.

There are Comments
blog comments powered by Disqus