If you’re a little unnerved by the spate of lifelike, Uncanny Valley robotics that you’ve seen on ExtremeTech over the last few months, you should probably turn away now. PETMAN, the latest and most terrifying creation of Boston Dynamics, walks, talks, looks like, and does pushups and lunges just like you or I. Watch the video below, and then scroll back up.
Like AlphaDog (née BigDog), PETMAN is being developed by Boston Dynamics for the US Department of Defence. PETMAN won’t be used in active duty, though: Instead, it will have the rather mundane task of testing chemical-protection clothing for the US Army. The idea is that PETMAN has a very human-like physiology, and thus its movements stress clothing in much the same way as an actual human would. Obviously, in case the tested material doesn’t stand up to the rigor of testing, it’s better that a robot takes the brunt of the toxic chemicals instead of a human.
Apparent, advertised purposes aside, though, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that PETMAN is an almost-untethered, anthropomorphic, fast-moving robot that’s strong enough to carry a weapon. If you can’t imagine the combat possibilities of PETMAN, you’re simply not trying hard enough. At first, combat-ready Petmen could be remotely controlled, like the US Air Force’s drones, but in the future, perhaps they’ll be given an autonomous AI. If you wanted confirmation that PETMAN might one day be used in battle, look at that red light on its head; if that doesn’t scream Cylon, I don’t know what does.
The next stage, incidentally, is to replace that light with an actual head. We were thinking something along the lines of Meka’s cute, female robot head — but knowing the US Army, something slightly more Terminator is probably called for.
0 comments:
Post a Comment