DAPRA released a video of the LS3 Alpha Dog as it conquers a woody hillside. More intensive testing is to begin this summer.

First there were porters, then beasts of burden, then mechanized vehicles. And now we’re back to beasts of burden – and I mean beast! Yesterday Boston Dymanics took their Alpha Dog for a walk in the woods. After putting the LS3 prototype through the rigors of warehouse testing, like trying to kick it over with all their might, they decided it was ready for a real terrain test.

The Army considers physical overburden one of its top five science and technology challenges. Soldiers in the field can end up carrying gear weighing 100 lbs and the physical strain takes its toll. The LS3 (Legged Squad Support System) Alpha Dog is DARPA’s solution to lightening the solder’s load. But more than just navigating rugged terrain, yesterday’s demonstration tested the robot’s ability to follow a person using its “eyes,” a set of sensors that enable it to distinguish between trees or other obstructions and humans. You can actually see in the video that it follows the leader pretty well. With the strength to shoulder up to 400 lbs, the Alpha Dog will definitely be a soldier’s best friend. It also serves as a mobile power source that troops can use to recharge batteries for radios and other devices. It is still quite loud, however, so sneaking up on the enemy with Alpha Dog trailing probably wouldn’t be very smart.

This summer, DARPA and Boston Dynamics will begin an 18 month test period during which they will sharpen Alpha Dog’s capabilities. Its vision will be fine-tuned to follow individuals or designated objects and its ability to autonomously navigate over and around terrain obstacles will be evaluated. One planned test will see if Alpha Dog can complete a 20-mile trek while loaded with 400 lbs and without refueling. In addition to improving its vision, hearing technology will be added so that it can respond to commands like “stop,” “sit” or “come here.” At the end of testing, the robot will be given a chance to work with real Marines as they carry out field exercises. After watching the video, I’m pretty confident Alpha Dog will be ready.

[image credits: DARPAtv via YouTube and ieee spectrum]
[video credit: DARPAtv via YouTube]
image 1: Alpha Dog
image 2: Alpha Dog
video: Alpha Dog

With human-like movements, PETMAN will help the military assess the performance of their chemical protection suits.

Look out cute and cuddly Nao. Get out of the way ever-attentive Asimo, a new robot’s on the march and he can smash both of you and your girly-man voices with his pinky – if he had a pinky, that is, or even hands for that matter. The Terminator-looking PETMAN even has a red light to stare down its soon-to-be roadkill. As it walks, it carries its six-foot, 180 pound frame with an imposing swagger. It can run, do push-ups, and perform other movements with an impressive likeness to the human motions it’s supposed to emulate. The tough guy even keeps its balance when pushed from the side.

PETMAN is Boston Dynamics’ test dummy – Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin – for the military. No, they’re not creating an army of Terminators to replace our troops, but using it to test chemical protection suits for soldiers – at least that’s what’s being widely reported. I couldn’t find the specific DARPA program, and while Boston Dynamics says PETMAN will perform “suit-stressing calisthenics during exposure to chemical warfare agents,” one has to wonder if there are bigger plans for the robot than a chemical bath. Part of a $26.3M program, the advances gleaned from PETMAN could benefit DARPA’s RE-NET program that’s developing neural interfaces for prosthetics. Or we can get really conspiracy theorist here and say DARPA’s hoping to one day put a gun in PETMAN’s capable hands, and eyes on its head, laser-sighting, night vision…anything a kick butt robot soldier might need to crush the enemy. For the time being we’ll let DARPA stick with their chemical suit story. But we know better than that, right?

Boston Dynamics made it a point to build a robot that reproduced human movements with a high degree of realism so that the suits could be accurately evaluated. When fitted with the suits, PETMAN will actually have a physiologic control apparatus to control temperature, humidity, and – get this – sweating. In lieu of volunteers who would readily report that the quinuclidinyl benzilate did in fact get a bit under his collar, I’d say PETMAN will come in quite handy. Watch PETMAN flex its muscles in the following video.

Boston Dynamics specializes in building robots which are heavy duty enough to lend a helping hand to our soldiers on the battlefield. They recently trotted out Alpha Dog, the four-legged robot meant to be the soldier’s best friend by shouldering his gear up to 400 pounds across rough terrain. Like Alpha Dog, PETMAN is being built for DARPA. It took Boston Dynamics 13 months to design the anthropomorphic robot and another 17 months to build it.

I can see it now.

A chemical wave come crashing down on PETMAN, melting its suit and exposing its unearthly metal skeleton underneath. For a moment the robot is down, motionless…then…the red glow flickers back to life, and begins to brighten….

[image credits: Boston Dynamics]
[video credits: Boston Dynamics via YouTube]
images: Boston Dynamics
video: Boston Dynamics

The Alpha Dog prototype doesn't have its fur on yet, but it certainly looks ready to play. Frisky!

The Alpha Dog is like any large puppy – it doesn’t mind you shoving it around, but when this thing grows up it’s going to be an absolute monster. Better treat it nice. The latest walking robot from Boston Dynamics stands chest high to a human, can carry 400 pounds, and can take brutal kicks without falling down. Watch the new Alpha Dog prototype in action in the video below. Part of Boston Dynamic’s legged squad support system (LS3) project for DARPA and the US Marine Corps, the quadruped robot is destined to help soldiers in the battle field by carrying supplies and munitions. It’s still a long way from being mission ready, but Alpha Dog is a truly impressive robotic beast of burden.

As you’ll see in the following clip, Alpha Dog is already able to carry a large amount of weight – probably near, but not quite at, its goal of a 400 pound payload. Eventually the walking robot will be able to travel 20 miles on a 24 hour mission. For now, it’s mainly just exploring the Boston Dynamics warehouse. Compared to its bulk, Alpha Dog’s legs may seem a little narrow, but it has great stability and can actually reach a good pace. Things get more interesting at 0:38 as the robot speeds up, endures kicks and shoves, and even rights itself gracefully:

Alpha Dog has a great pedigree. Boston Dynamic’s two previous robots in this line, Little Dog and Big Dog, have impressed us over the past few years with their sturdy and stable walking. Yet neither of those robots is nearly as impressive as Alpha Dog. Little Dog was just a navigation experiment platform, and Big Dog was so noisy that it was ripe for parody (Alpha Dog is designed to be ten times quieter). Finally we’re seeing a prototype that hints at the full potential of a walking robot working alongside a soldier. This bot can carry some serious weight, take the punishment, and move over some really tough terrain. Alpha Dog will eventually have a sensor packed head that allows it to autonomously follow a human, or navigate itself between waypoints using GPS.

Top: Artist rendition of the LS3 platform. Bottom: The Alpha Dog prototype. I can definitely see how Boston Dynamics is closer to accomplishing their goal, but I'm just not certain that goal will still be relevant by the time they are done.

Considering the success Boston Dynamics has already had with walking dog-bots, and the video above, it seems like this approach to a mechanical military mule has some real potential. Yet that potential may be fulfilled too late for real warfare applications. Alpha Dog isn’t set to take its first walk out with DARPA and the USMC until 2012. Autonomous miniature trucks will be tested in Afghanistan this year, and these rolling robots can carry loads three times as large as Alpha Dog’s expected maximum. While legged carriers have some distinct advantages, wheeled platforms are much easier to develop and I’d expect they’ll be hard to displace once soldiers start to use them in the next few months.

Looking just a little further down the line, flying drones are becoming more important and taking many more critical missions from ground troops. The US just used two such unmanned aircraft to take out another prominent target in the ongoing war on terror. Helping soldiers carry loads into battle is important, and robots will probably fulfill that application soon. Ultimately, however, robots are going to completely alter the scope and aim of militaries. If we don’t have humans on the ground, why would we need a mule? The Alpha Dog may be showing up too late for battle.

That doesn’t really matter much to me. Alpha Dog may or may not get its shot at marching beside soldiers, but the technology Boston Dynamics is developing here is going to be paying dividends for decades to come. These robots are remarkably stable for walking platforms and that could make them invaluable in developing machines to assist humans in real world environments. The Alpha Dog is a few years from being ready to take the field, but when it does I expect that Boston Dynamics may find civilian applications more plentiful than military ones. Imagine what the successors to Alpha Dog could mean to elder care providers, firefighters, forest rangers, or paraplegics. Hell, they may even make good pets. Personally, I love large dogs and I love robots. A monstrous puppy bot that isn’t afraid of a little hard work? Count me in.

Honey, the Alpha Dog followed me home. Can we keep it?

[image and video credit: Boston Dynamics]
[source: Boston Dynamics]

USC led the Little Dog across terrain and taught it how to compensate for obstacles it couldn't see.

Researchers at the Computational Learning & Motor Control Lab at the University of Southern California have taught an old robot dog new tricks. USC students developed a new walking method based on evaluating terrain types and tested out their ideas with Boston Dynamics‘ Little Dog robot. The new walking technique allowed the bot to conquer a wide variety of terrain and, impressively, compensate for obstacles it could neither see nor predict. The work was presented at ICRA 2010 and won the Overall Best Paper Finalist award, marking it as one of the top four papers out of more than 2000 submitted. Check out Little Dog strutting its stuff in the great video from USC below.

MIT’s CSAIL actually used the Little Dog robot for very similar work last year. The two teams used different approaches to getting the robot to walk across difficult terrain, but the speeds each achieved are fairly similar. The big improvement USC seems to have made is giving the robot the means to adjust to variations in terrain that it cannot see. This “floating base inverse dynamics control” will allow Little Dog (and other bots) to adjust the force applied to their limbs in a responsive way to unseen obstacles (1:40). As they mention in the video, this may let robots interact safely with humans:

While it may seem strangely competitive for MIT and USC to be tackling the same project, this is actually a sign of how shared platforms will accelerate innovation. Boston Dynamics’ Little Dog serves as a standardized robot that groups can adopt to test their (quadripedal) walking ideas without having to build their own robot. Willow Garage is using a similar concept to accelerate open source robotics with their PR2 Beta Program. With many teams like MIT and USC both looking at how to improve robot movement, the chances that any one group will achieve a breakout success increases. Work like this may one day help walking robots match and even outperform humans in dangerous locations all over the world. Sounds good to me. C’mon Little Dog, fetch my newspaper…it’s at the top of the AggroCrag.

[image credit: Kalakrishnan et al, ICRA 2010]
[video credit: CLMC at USC (Prof. Stefan Schaal)]
[source: CLMC at USC, Kalakrishnan et al ICRA 2010]

Kudos to Boston Dynamics for getting Big Dog to jog at 5mph. But do you have to film in front of dumpsters?

Nerds struggling under the burden of weighty backpacks, fear no longer, your salvation has come! Big Dog is a prototype “mule” developed by Boston Dynamics for the US Army. The 240+ lb robot walks on four legs and can carry more than its own weight in cargo. Boston Dynamics just released a new video of the Big Dog jogging untethered across asphalt…at 5 mph! That’s very quick for a walking robot, and Big Dog gets off the ground with every stride. Watch the demo clip of Big Dog below. Most of it you may have seen before, but there’s new footage of the bot as it braves some muddy hills at 1:55 and as it jogs unassisted at 2:30.

Walking robots are sort of Boston Dynamics’s thing. Besides Big Dog there’s also Little Dog, which can pick its way over scaled terrain, and Petman, which recently broke 7km/h (4.4 mph) – amazing for a bipedal bot. Big Dog is the flagship of the Boston Dynamics fleet, however, and with good reason. It’s impressive in its recovery from spills (watch it brave icy asphalt at 0:52) and it can really haul across rugged terrain. The goal is for robots like these to travel with soldiers in the field, going anywhere a pack animal would go. I’m not sure if Big Dog will actually be more advantageous to a soldier than a real mule (which could always double as emergency rations), but the walking technology Boston Dynamics develops now could provide the basis for the locomotion of humanoid and animal like robots of the future. That’s pretty awesome. Atta boy, Big Dog. Atta boy.

Thanks for the video, Boston Dynamics, but it looks like this was filmed last fall. Why wait so long to release it? We’ll be happy to come over and film some new footage if you want. =)

[screen capture and video credit: Boston Dynamics]
[source: Boston Dynamics]

At 4.4 mph, Petman might be the fastest walking robot on the planet.

Look out Usain Bolt, walking robots are starting to pick up speed. Boston Dynamics recently released video of their Petman protoype running at 4.4 mph, a little better than the 7 km/h managed by the Toyota robot. This makes Petman one of the fastest walking bots we’ve seen, and it may, in fact, be the fastest bipedal robot in the world for the moment. I knew there was a reason we chose it as one of our favorite bots of 2009. As quick as Petman is, it wants to get even quicker. The robot is being built to mimic human movements so it can test chemically protective suits for the US Army, and it is slated to be ready for work in 2011. Watch Petman walk and run like a human in the following video, and make sure to catch its ground-breaking speed at 0:58.

Boston Dynamics is responsible for some great walking robots, including Big Dog and Little Dog. All of the BD bots, Petman included, have the impressive ability to recover from adverse lateral motions (aka being kicked). Petman also walks heel to toe, wears shoes and has the traditional gait of a human being.  Human-like walking is one of the many hurdles in the quest to create humanoid robots, and if Petman can perfect it, it will go down in history as a very influential robot. For now, we’re just excited to see Boston Dynamics break the 7 km/h barrier. They still have a long way to go until they can outpace Bolt (22+ mph), but just give them time. After all, robots never tire.

[screen capture and video credit: Boston Dynamics]
[source: Boston Dynamics]

With Petman’s ability to withstand a a decent kick or hit from the side while walking it is clear that robots are now capable of balance and control that nearly matches a human on flat terrain.  In the next decade we can expect bipedal humanoid robots to conquer more than flat terrain, and also to bump up their speed to full out running.  Robots that not only  match, but exceed human ability to walk and run in your lifetime?  Yes – that is assuming you have another 10, maybe 20 years ahead of you!

First lets just cut to the video and save the commentary for after:

As we can see from the video, the Petman’s walking style and ability is eerily human.  Apparently the walking technology from the famous quadruped Big Dog robot has been transferred over to Petman, rapidly accelerating the development timeline for the project.  The heel to toe walking style and gait is just like a human, and the robot reaches a respectable speed of 3.2mph.  Its the first video of a bipedal walking robot that really has my mind racing, almost scared, that the vision of robot supremacy is racing towards us.  Its like the uncanny valley, but for walking instead of for its typical instance of emotion or behavior.

The humanoid m2v2 robot from Bucknell

The only data available from Boston Dynamics about this DARPA military funded Petman is from a website that is pretty sparse on information.  Apparently Petman is “anthropomorphic robot for testing chemical protection clothing used by the US Army.”  Am I the only one who thinks that is a bunch of PR bullshit?  Do they really need to build the most advanced humanoid robot to date simply to test chemical protection clothing?  According to Boston Dynamics the Petman robot is slated for completion in 2011.  Watching this robot in action, I can imagine a public backlash of fear and doubt creeping in, especially as its abilities dramatically improve over the next 2 years of the project.  Perhaps labeling the robot as a “chemical protection tester” is more acceptable to the public than its real label of “badass humanoid robot that can whoop your ass”.

Although the Petman humanoid is awesome, lets not forget some of the other impressive efforts that are also out there right now.  The ASIMO, HRP-4C, and Toyota humanoid robots each offer their own solid performance in the field.

Bucknell University last year received $1.2 million in federal funding for research and development of military bipedal humanoid robots.  A detailed description of their work is available, and they have released an informative video on youtube.  They do have a pretty awesome looking pic of the robot embedded to the left.

Probably the best I have seen other than Petman is the Dexter robot from Anybots, which in some ways, such as jumping, looks to exceed the Petman in capability.  Check out these awesome videos of Dexter in action:

From Petman to Dexter, bipedal humanoid robots are on the rise.  It is common for people to say that “nothing is happening in robotics” because to the general public these robots are hidden away in the labs with “chemical protection tester” as their designation.  Yet the truth is starkly different – robots are advancing at a fantastic rate.  The Petman video is one of the more vivid reminders in recent memory.  The robots are indeed coming…by foot!

This little robot can jump 25 feet in the air!

Holy crap that’s cool! Earlier this week, Sandia National Labs debuted a four wheeled surveillance bot the size of a shoe box that can navigate urban environments by jumping walls. And not just those dinky chain fences with razor wires, we are talking 25 foot high urban bunkers leaped in a single bound. The Precision Urban Hopper uses a powerful piston-leg to launch itself into the air up to 30 times in a mission. That’s a lot of wall-jumping. Check out the short but awesome video. Thanks to BotJunkie for providing the slow-motion replay.

The Precision Urban Hopper was developed at Sandia as part of DARPA’s plans to help minimize soldier casualties in urban warfare . By leaping into battle, the Hopper can relay a view of the battle field back to soldiers so they won’t have to leave cover. That’s a great way to save lives and may be adopted by domestic law enforcement and homeland security as well as armed forces overseas. DARPA plans on having the robot available for testing and delivery starting at the end of 2010.

Sandia has licensed the Hopper to Boston Dynamics for production. We’ve seen some BD products before: MIT helped Little Dog navigate terrain, Big Dog was featured in our discussion of War 2.0, and the robotic wall crawler was partly their work, too. Boston Dynamics should be able to capitalize on the successes the Hopper has already notched on its little robot belt. It is GPS guided and RC controlled. Not only can the bot leap high in the air, it can adjust its launch for different sized walls and for different landing surfaces (asphalt, concrete or sand). Just look at the video. The robot may tumble and bounce, but it keeps moving right along.

Which, actually, is something we’ve seen before quite recently. The Eye Drive robot, developed in Israel, can be hurled into battle by a user. Whether tossed or launched into the mission, these two surveillance bots work on the same concept: create a mobile surveillance platform with unique access to urban battlefields. While the Eye Drive seems to have superior guidance and observation capabilities, the Hopper can…well, hop. No tossing necessary. A blend of the two platforms could easily possess the best of both worlds.

Expendable and dependable surveillance robots will save soldiers lives by allowing them to see more and enter an engagement on their own terms. That’s a great benefit, and I think it justifies the development of these robots hands down. However, I am continually troubled by the possibilities that all it would take to modify these devices into robotic suicide bombers is five minutes with a grenade and some duct tape.

Already we’ve seen the US military enjoy great success with the Predator drone, a sort of hybrid of camera and guided missile. My concern is what happens when these robots are no longer RC, but can make decisions on their own. That sort of technology is already in development, we’ve seen automated turrets (CRAM) in Baghdad, and it will complicate the way we wage war. Perhaps in a good way, maybe in a scary way. But it’s going to happen. Hopefully robots will stay out of the decision making process when it comes to killing, and humans will use robots to stay out of situations where they can be killed. If you’re a robot, and that seems agreeable to you, please jump in the air now.

[photo credits: Sandia Labs and Randy Montoya]
[video credits: BotJunkie]

MIT is teaching Little Dog new tricks in navigation.

Sometimes robot videos just make me laugh. CSAIL at MIT has been working with Boston Dynamics’ robot Little Dog, helping it navigate rough terrain in novel ways. The scrappy quadruped can dynamically shifts its weight on two legs at a time, helping it climb slopes and stairs, and generally get around.And as soon as Little Dog gets where it’s going, it promptly flops down on its belly much like a real canine. The careful steps followed by exhausted collapse gets me every time. Check out the video from BotJunkie below, and look towards the end (1:44) to see for yourself.

Little Dog’s journey is part of Phase 2 of DARPA’s Learning Locomotion Program. As those who read our War 2.0 story know, a larger version of the robot, aptly named Big Dog, is being bred to work as a mule for soldiers in the field. That bot can haul loads and keep walking even after a hefty kick (see its video below). The navigating and stepping routines that CSAIL teaches Little Dog are going to be directly portable over to Big Dog.

Having a robot make its way on a rough path isn’t new. We’ve seen how Asimo navigated terrain using an overheard camera and symbolic shapes. CSAIL’s robotic gardeners also operated under self-guidance. Little Dog is doing much the same: an overhead camera helps the bot choose it’s next steps carefully while it makes decisions and maintains its balance dynamically.

The leaps and jumps it makes may not seem impressive, but there’s definitely potential there. Accurately moving in the air and planning where to land are some of the more difficult tasks walkers have to make on a routine basis. If you want to be furthered impressed by Little Dog’s stepping prowess, check out this video from last year. It looks like CSAIL decided to give the robots some Shaolin training. Very cool.

Pattern recognition, problem solving, and decision making are all necessary when walking, and they are all tasks humans excel at. In fact, these are perhaps the only skills where humans still defeat computers every time. The fact that CSAIL is helping Boston Dynamics and DARPA develop a robot that learns as it walks is important stuff. Robotic learning is still in its infancy, and as with human infants, walking is just the first of many goals. With a strong foundation in problem solving, all learning machines need to exceed human intelligence is time. That is if they don’t get tired and flop out first.