Here comes America war robots?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mclbVTIYG8E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSbZrQp-HOk&feature=relmfu

Petman is a basically a protype of the Robot or Droid Atlas.

Boston Dynamics, the military engineering firm best known for its four-legged BigDog robot, has been awarded two contracts by DARPA to develop a pair of new robots: an agile humanoid called ATLAS and a speedy, animal-inspired quadruped called CHEETAH.

ATLAS looks like a headless Terminator, with a torso, two legs and two arms, all controlled by an array of servos, pistons and robotic muscles. His killer feature is lifelike agility, and will be able to tackle difficult terrain by walking upright, sidling through narrow passages and using his hands for balance, support and grip.

"ATLAS will walk like a man, using a heel-to-toe walking motion, long strides and dynamic transfer of weight on each step," explains Rob Playter, the ATLAS principal investigator and VP of Engineering at Boston Dynamics. Dynamic agility systems will allow the robot to use his own momentum to throw or swing himself across gaps and between handholds. It's not entirely clear why he lacks a head.

CHEETAH, on the other hand, is about pure velocity. Named after the planet's fastest land animal, Boston's big-cat-inspired robot will sprint faster than the quickest human athletes. It doesn't sacrifice maneuverability though, as the robot is being designed to take tighter turns so it can zigzag to chase and evade. "It will accelerate rapidly, starting and stopping on a dime," says Boston Dynamics in a statement.

The robot will have four legs, a flexible spine and an articulated head and neck. Giving the cat a tail is marked down as a possibility by the consortium of robot experts currently working on CHEETAH and ATLAS, including engineers from MIT and the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. In the animal kingdom, the cheetah uses its tail like a boat's rudder, allowing the 75-mph predator to make its sharp turns and flanking twists.

While the primary concerns of DARPA's new robots will be the military, the agile and free-footed droids would also have uses in commercial and civil applications. Boston Dynamics suggests emergency response, firefighting, advanced agriculture and vehicular travel in places that are inaccessible to conventional wheeled and tracked vehicles.http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/28/boston-dynamics-atlas-and-cheetah

Past prototypes from Boston Dynamics below videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNZPRsrwumQ&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67CUudkjEG4&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIipbi0cAVE&feature=relmfu

 

This is fascinating material. A few years ago in the Industrial Technology Program I was in one of the students who was a military personnel mentioned programs like this that DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) was at the time exploring the agility of machines for future patrol machines. The drones we see today are an outgrowth of the autonomous machines program under the Strategic Computing Initiative (SCI) program that came out in the 1980's in which (1) autonomous, (2) Pilot Associate (3) and Battle Management were to be explored for not only military applications, but for civilian use as well. We are now beginning to see these innovation in everything from drones to artificial intelligence software in automation factories. Good post. Bro, keep it going. You are one of the extremely few into science and technology here.

 

These types of systems have been in use for some time now. A great look at the range of issues that they raise (including design, which often mimics nature) is P.W. Singer's book, Wired for War. Here's his interview about the book on the Daily Show:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-january-29-2009/p-w--singer

I do some work on this as well, and the systems of today are nothing compared to what's coming. The US military (among others) has invested extensively in these systems for two reasons: (1) to reduce risk to our military personnel by removing them from dangerous situations such as detecting IEDs, and (2) to make the military more efficient by reducing the number of personnel we need. To realize the manpower savings that the second goal requires, these systems will be necessity have to become more and more autonomous. One drone pilot controlling a single drone reduces risk, but you're not realizing any savings in terms of the manpower, so maybe over time, one drone pilot is supervising several drones, which now function more autonomously. Humans are going to become further and further removed, which creates a range of legal and ethical questions that we're only beginning to consider.

 

Nerdy Girl, I have the book you mentioned, "Wired For War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century". I'm reading chapter seven at this time on"Robotic Gods: Our Machine Creators". I'm doing a research paper on artificial intelligence right now with some of the research in robotic systems. The development of hypercomputers is truly changing the course of modern warfare that is powering this movement. This is why the chinese are so frantic in their stealing of this technology thru cyber theft. DARPA is quietly developing a one zettaflop (1000 exaflop) computer system that will power autonomous vehicles globally for specific missions. It for instance could operate and monitor a hypersonic attack drone that can hit any target anywhere in the world within an hour. We are truly living in interesting times.

 

I am glad everyone is enjoying this tread. However i have a computer question, How close we are in the development of Quantum Computers? I have heard many theories about Quantum Computers, and its possibility to revolutionize society, but i am just wondering how far the United States Government and private sector in developing Quantum computers?

 

I hope the following info answers your question on quantum computing. It appears we may see a breakthrough in the next ten years according to some estimates I have seen.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/computers_math/quantum_computers/


Quantum computing will make today's fastest computer of 10 quadrillion (petaflops) look like a slow mechanical calculator. Imagine the changes to the world, to society this kind of computing power will bring. I think we will see optical computing first as the transition to quantum computing. I cannot wait to see this advance technology used in manufacturing with simulation and modeling being the tool for the new future of economic growth. The new economy of the future will be tied to advance hypercomputing.

 

A little more icing to the cake.

http://themadscientists.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/quantum-computing-an-arms-race-of-the-21st-century

This kind of power will determine the nation that will be the superpower of the future. China is pushing this one hard.

 

Mr. Braincali, I do not plan to remain on this site for too much longer. I will stick around for this section of the forum only to pickup any information that you may provide to this thread on quantum computing in the next few weeks. I find this to be an very fascinating subject that will change the world as nuclear energy has done.

 

Mr. Braincali, your thoughts on the implementation of high performance computing into the classroom. Where you are currently living, is there an intensive application of supercomputing interfaces into educational instruction, software, and the use of graphics as learning aids? I believe traditional teacher-student interaction is still key with the introduction into the classroom environment of supercomputing resources to aid the learning process. I believe simulation and modeling as used in flight simulators, war games, and earth observation systems in high definition graphics can do much to aid the learning of young children to make learning fun for them. The key is making learning fun. The advent of robotic systems can be a great aid also in generating interest back into industrial education and could ignite a new revolution in learning in this country as it is currently being done in India, Brazil, China and other forward looking countries. A friend who is in the Air Force tells me that when he was stationed in Germany he saw industrial and computer labs in elementry and middle schools that were paked with students. He said not all Germans aspire to be lawyers or businessmen or women. Industrial/computer education is priority one in Germany, which explains why they seem to have their act together better than the rest of Europe. Your thoughts please.

 

Seems like a something straight out of terminator. On the bright side, you can send bots into areas you wouldn't want to send a person.

Human life can't be judged in dollars but a robot can

 

Mr. PettyOfficer, you are so correct. When the movie Terminator came out back in 1984 it fascinated the hell out of me. The thought of cyborgs, hunter killers or patrol machines and artificial intelligence ignited my interest in science and technology. About that time there was much high tech innovation that was coming out then like in Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or Star Wars as the media like to call it back then, the Strategic Computing Project (in which much of today's technology marvels came from), the Superconducting SuperCollider (the democrats killed that one), Human Genome Project, the Hyperspeed Space Plane, Space Shuttle, Space Station, Space Telescope and of course the Personal Computer would make it's impact that changed our world. These technological projects would further grab hold of my imagination that the future for this country was bright. I'm not so sure now. I think our best days as a technological superpower is coming to an end unless something is done in our education system to ignite the learning of our children much like the Space Race did in the 1950's and 60's.

 

I think the implications are even broader than warfare. As in so many areas, the military is driving the development of technology that will revolutionize many areas of our life. When (because I believe it's not even an "if") these autonomous machines develop, we'll be witnessing something like the creation of a new species.

You may also be interested in some of Ray Kurzweil's work...

 

Thank you Ms. Nerdy Girl. I have picked up today Ray Kurzweil's national bestseller, "The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence". This book is fantastic. Thank you again for steering me to this work.

 

You're welcome, Blacktiger. I'm glad you liked the book. :smt023