Boston Dynamics Is Gearing Up To Produce Thousands of Robot Dogs (fortune.com) 83
Boston Dynamics, maker of uncannily agile robots, is poised to bring its first commercial product to market -- a small, dog-like robot called the SpotMini. From a report: The launch was announced in May, and founder Marc Raibert recently said that by July of next year, Boston Dynamics will be producing the SpotMini at the rate of around 1,000 units per year. The broader goal, as reported by Inverse, is to create a flexible platform for a variety of applications. According to Raibert, SpotMini is currently being tested for use in construction, delivery, security, and home assistance applications. The SpotMini moves with the same weirdly smooth confidence as previous experimental Boston Dynamics robots with names like Cheetah, BigDog, and Spot.
Fahrenheit 451... (Score:1)
Wowzers! It's the Mechanical Hound from Fahrenheit 451! How long before some government or mercenary firm comes up with the bright idea of arming the fucking things?
For every one of those things produced, there should be 100 cheap EMP cannons produced imported from China as a countermeasure.
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I'm not an expert in emp, but I'd imagine robots are easy to harden against anything sub-nuclear.
As for arming these, I'd worry more about wal-mart level drones with dynamite strapped to them. I'm frankly astonished it hasn't happened yet. Or has it and no one reported on it?
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You need more than 20 grams of explosive to do some harm
If it's anti-personnel, 20 grams and an explosively formed projectile are probably more than enough.
Re:Fahrenheit 451... (Score:4, Interesting)
It has been done several times but is really difficult to Google.
Nevertheless, here's one report: https://www.scmp.com/news/worl... [scmp.com]
Re:Fahrenheit 451... (Score:5, Funny)
I would be more concerned about the thoughtless owners who walk them, letting them drop little ones and zeroes all over our sidewalks.
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This is worse then you think and needs to be stopped.
The 1s are dangerous. Very hard to see and they can go right through a shoe. Best case you wind up with a trip to the doctor to get a stupid tetanus shot just from walking down the sidewalk.
Also dangerous even if you do collect them properly and put them in the trash. Someone else in the family goes to push down on the trash and pulls back a hand that looks like a pincushion.
Re:Fahrenheit 451... (Score:5, Funny)
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Why not do both? Sell the design for a while, then "leak" it. Mass chaos! Wheeee!
Re: Fahrenheit 451... (Score:1)
well the K9 cops should use there union to keep do (Score:2)
well the K9 cops should use there union to keep the dogs they have now!
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This is supposed to be a modified "Spot-mini", so it's not going to be big enough to carry anything heavy, and not going to be sturdy enough to survive being stepped on.
OTOH, I hope they're less ugly than the prior edition. And I do wonder what possible utility they have. Spies, perhaps?
Oops..I made wrong size estimate (Score:2)
Apparently the thing is about 2 ft tall when standing up (presumably not including the giraffe-like neck). So it's sturdier than I was thinking. And from the pictures it's uglier than I remembered. (I wonder who made the robot I was remembering...it wasn't nearly that ugly, and was white with black spots. And it was smaller.)
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One of the best Black Mirror episodes, IMO.
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Who's a good boy then? (Score:1)
None of these.
Obligatory Kent Brockman (Score:4, Insightful)
One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them.
I, for one, welcome our new robot dogs overlords.
Alternative headline (Score:1)
Boston Dynamics to produce kilo-dogs!
The CDC says almost 800k people... (Score:1)
a year have to seek medical attention after a dog bite so replacing those animals with things that won't attack us will really help with safety and medical costs.
Plus, the less dog poop on sidewalks and in parks would be nice. I live in Seattle, and the amount of dog poop here is just terrible.
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I want to get a robot girlfriend for similar reasons.
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www.realdoll.com
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I want to get a robot girlfriend for similar reasons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxHXa0t3sn0
"Oh!
Oh, how I want you
I really really want you
I need your love to guide my way
Oh! oh! oh!
Oh, how I need you
I really really need you
Don't try to bark
And I'll take you to the park
Arf! arf! arf!"
Re: The CDC says almost 800k people... (Score:1)
And?
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a year have to seek medical attention after a dog bite so replacing those animals with things that won't attack us will really help with safety and medical costs.
Nasty folks take pleasant tempered dogs, and train them to become vicious killing beasts. For shits & giggles.
I'm guessing that your average drug dealer, pimp or NFL star will do the same with their robot dogs.
Plus, the less dog poop on sidewalks and in parks would be nice. I live in Seattle, and the amount of dog poop here is just terrible.
Shame on you, 1%er! For calling the homeless dog poop!
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Great ... (Score:3, Funny)
Oh great; now dog owners will all say
"Oh, don't worry, my dog doesn't bite ... or go ruthless terminator and exterminate mankind. Not my little sweetie kins!"
Tagged article "metalhead" (Score:3)
And now the circle is complete... [youtube.com]
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My thought exactly. It's like BD is rushing as fast as possible to implement all of the horror sci-fi stories of the last forty years.
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You don't, but your car does.
more bad links from msmash (Score:4, Informative)
Two links- one to Fortune, one to Slashdot. Fortune rarely works for me, but right there in the article is a link to a previous, better story from Inverse, a more interesting publisher. Why Fortune and not the better article? Kickbacks?
Where are the Youtube links? Perhaps you thought they would be superfluous in a story about clever robots?
Inverse article: https://www.inverse.com/articl... [inverse.com]
Cheetah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Boston Dynamics: https://www.youtube.com/channe... [youtube.com]
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Security? (Score:2)
Dark Mirror - Metal Head (Score:3, Interesting)
Guys (Boston Dynamics) this can't end well.
Re: Dark Mirror - Metal Head (Score:1)
The notion of AI in this style is nothing more than fantasy. AI of the level needed to achieve the behaviors in that episode precludes the dystopian "flaws" required for such a scenario to come about.
Just like the terminator robots, Skynet, and innumerable half-assed incarnations of evil AI in pop fiction. It's no lie a danger than a zombie apocalypse - remotely plausible, but not really.
Current technologies could produce hunter killer robots, but it would require teams of engineers years of development and
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Current technologies could produce hunter killer robots, but it would require teams of engineers years of development and billions of dollars to approach the Black Mirror level of inventiveness and adaptation in killing people.
It doesn't have to be the exact level of Black Mirror to be terrifying, the Boston Dynamics robot dog with a built-in ballistic weapon and an accurate motion sensor is enough. And all of that already exists.
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It wasn't AI. The original script for the ending showed that a family man was controlling the dog from the comfort of their home office.
Sony Aibo? (Score:1)
NT
Airlines un/loading of cargo in bottom (Score:2)
Re: Airlines un/loading of cargo in bottom (Score:2)
how long (Score:2)
Before there are robot dog fighting rings and would they be illegal??!
Muffit II (Score:1)
Daggits are in short supply these days, so they should name it Muffit II.
i hope they're working on a Skynet. (Score:1)
We've seen this movie (Score:1)
Aaahnald eventually tries to hunt down John Connor's mother
I'll call mine "Rin Tin Can" (Score:2)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] I feel old.