Robotic 'Pack Mule' with Impressive Reflexes 268
moon_monkey writes "New Scientist has a story about a nimble, four-legged robot that can recover its balance even after being given a hefty kick." From the article: "The project is sponsored by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), who want the robotic pack mule to assist soldiers in terrain too tough for vehicles. Ground-based soldiers often need to carry 40 kilograms of equipment. Raibert says the latest version of BigDog can handle slopes of 35 - a steeper gradient than one in two. The hydraulics are driven by a two-stroke single-cylinder petrol engine, and it can carry over 40 kg, about 30% of its bodyweight. The robot can follow a simple path on its own, or can be remotely controlled."
Why not just use ... a live mule? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hefty Kick? (Score:2, Insightful)
Who's the brute who kicked that robot?
Re:Why not just use ... a live mule? (Score:3, Insightful)
b - this is a proof of concept demonstrating the technology. the key here is that it can navigate rough terrain and has good balance. The source of rotational energy is hardly important at this point.
Sand isn't exactly friendly to the lungs of an animal, either, and at least when the robot dies you have a chance of repairing it. Good luck repairing your dead mule.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Looking Real (Score:4, Insightful)
The video delivers what is promised but notice that when it does go up that steep hill there is no 40+ kg of weight on it...
It also seems a bit to loud and well, in need of some body armor.
Re:its BigDog, not "pack mule" (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:If you were my student, I'd fail you (Score:2, Insightful)
Did I hear a "yay" for dimensionless units? Oh, yes, I think I did.
Re:Why not just use ... a live mule? (Score:3, Insightful)
First: Yes, an untrained mule may be spooked be gunfire. On the other hand people have been training horses to go into battle for thousands years. Worst case scenario your packmule runs from behind cover and gets shot (assuming the enemy would bother shooting at fleeing livestock in the middle of a fight).
Second: Mating calls from a mule? Mules are sterile, do they even make mating calls? Better question: Do they make mating calls LOUDER THAN A 2-STROKE ENGINE?!?
Third: Poop stinks, gotta give you that. So does gasoline though. Don't know enough about tracking dogs, their abilities, or their use in militaries around the world to guess how much of an issue this is.
Fourth: If the gas tank runs dry the machine DOES TOO die. The fact that you can send out a retrieval team later to recover it is of little help to the people in the group it was attached to. This thing is designed to operate in areas where conventional ground vehicles can't go, which means no gas trucks go there either. Also, if your robot mule dies for some reason you can't cook and eat it.
Re:Why not just use ... a live mule? (Score:2, Insightful)
Let's see here... (Score:5, Insightful)
This thing can carry a bit more, eats gasoline, makes as much noise as a gas turbine, will happily stroll into harm's way, and will likely cost on the order of a luxury car per unit. While there will be no training needed, when it breaks down it's just so much spare parts.
Part of the reason for wanting something that can go anywhere is that the trucks you currently have *can't*. So how are you going to refuel the mechanical mule? Can this thing pack enough spare fuel *and* have enough capacity left to be useful?
I think I'll stick with the mule.
Re:Why not just use ... a live mule? (Score:2, Insightful)
Mules are also notoriously, well, mulish.
The car did not replace the horse because it was more luxurious. At the the time it was anything but. It replaced the horse because it was less expensive to purchase and own, as well as far less trouble.
The primary problem with this device is, however, what you allude to. It can run out of gas. We're not talking about Patton's tank column here. We're talking about an ordinary dogface soldier, a grunt, becoming dependant on petrol to carry his pack for him
Join the Army. Learn to be a wuss.
I'm not sure this is a good tactic just at a time when wars are becoming increasingly about petrol, because it's in short supply. The Nez Perce might well have ground our modern army to a halt and made good their escape to Canada.
KFG
Re:Cost comparison? (Score:5, Insightful)
Pack mules need to be fed even if you are just storing them in a camp. This thing can be packed tight in a box until you need it, then you just feed it the same gas that you feed your other vehicles. You're already shipping gas, but you aren't shipping much mule food to the camp. Sure, one the move a mule can eat some grass, but that becomes harder in the middle of the desert or while being shipped across the ocean.
Also, it's much harder to resupply a group under dangerous conditions with mules being led than it is with something you can remote control a group of across that same dangerous territory. As far as weight ratios, some of them can carry gas for the others, while those others carry what you want delivered. It's the same system trucks use.
Plus, I imagine (based on previous darpa results) these will end up quite a bit faster than mules are.
Picture remote controlled, locally autonomous truck convoys dropping these things off for the "last mile" delivery to the troops in the hills and you'll see where all this is going.
Of course, eventually they'll also use them for surveilance placements and then remote controlled combat.
Beer mule (Score:4, Insightful)
Jim.
Low parts count (Score:3, Insightful)
Having said that, it's only a theory. Maybe they only had a grasmower to work with, having spend all teh money on *SERIOUSLY* good hydraulic actuators. It's seriously weird to watch this thing - impressive, but weird
Re:tracks? (Score:3, Insightful)
> weight mounted so high it becomes less of an issue.
I guess that must be why horses, deer, antelope, etc. all have such short legs.