Squeaky noticed this almost unbearably creepy robot. Click the link, watch the video, and be amazed. This is not Hollywood special effects — this is the real thing. The technical achievement is astounding — it rights itself when kicked or when it slips on ice, and can even leap. With a 200-lb.-plus payload, it can also carry a SAW and a bunch of ammo.
The mobility is what’s scary. We’re used to ROVs like bomb-disposal robots that are, frankly, clumsy and slow. If armed, with wireless remote control or decent target-recognition software, a pack of these things would be very very hard to stop. I know my capabilities as a rifleman, and there’s no way I could be sure of hitting one of the legs at any significant distance — or even close up, as fast as this thing moves. So to take it out, you’d have to put holes in the chassis. With that payload capacity, you could surround the brain with sufficient armor to stop .223 rounds at least. Those .30-06 Garands are looking better and better….
They’ve already armed the aerial robots. Now this takes care of the land part of the equation. The future’s here, folks. Now it’s just a matter of allocating the funds to build ’em.
I’d still like to try riding one, just for the hell of it.
Bob, you’re cracking me up.
(me, too)