
MIT Cheetah Robot Bounds Off Tether, Outdoors - spectruman
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/mit-cheetah-robot-bounds-off-tether-outdoors#.VBcJWVXTLRA.hackernews
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CoffeeDregs
The bounding part is very cool (I caught myself leaning forward in surprise
[and mild horror?] as the machine jumped over the box instead of maneuvering
around it). Besides not requiring fuel, does anyone know how this is
different/better/unique than Google/BostonDynamic's WildCage?
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE3fmFTtP9g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE3fmFTtP9g))
I certainly agree that more people working on this is a good thing, but I'd
like to understand the progress being made.

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cLeEOGPw
I just can't help but get the feeling that those robots like this, like Boston
Dynamics dogs and their cheetah, especially ASIMO and others resembling those,
are mere "medieval automatas"
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automaton#Medieval_automata](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automaton#Medieval_automata))
of our age. They lack something fundamental, maybe even as fundamental as
shift from clock gears to digital processors.

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WiseWeasel
It's lasers.

Or you may be referring to something like the _uncanny valley_ [1] phenomenon;
you're unsatisfied with the comparison to the subject of their mimicry, in
this case a cheetah. Some lasers would probably help with that.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley)

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robotresearcher
How many lasers do real cheetahs have?

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audreyt
Zero, which is why lasers would help — moving leftward (i.e. more machine-
like) is one of the three ways out of the uncanny valley.

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zokier
It doesn't really _look_ that impressive. Sure, the tech probably is very
advanced, but the gait just looks silly and quite far from the "elegance" of
fast land animals. While the article does imply that "getting from bounding to
galloping is not that hard", I don't think it is that easy either or they
would have done it already.

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smackfu
I think that's mainly because small animals don't generally walk like that
when they're going slow.

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clairity
exactly, animals tend to use the most energetically efficient form of
locomotion for a given desired speed (walking vs. running for example). i'm
not sure that bounding is more efficient than either walking or galloping at
any speed, since more energy seems to go into vertical and rotational motion
than those more common forms of locomotion.

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vijucat
I suppose people working on such projects don't think of their creations as
"scary as fuck"? Because that is exactly what I think when I see an
_effective_ dog-like robot. I cannot help but imagine, for example, that in
the future, campus shootings will be replaced by campus robots hunting down
students and faculty (due to malicious programming)! Is the fear I feel that
irrational, founded only on Hollywood movies in which mankind always ends up
fighting the rise of AI?

Also, (before software and hardware eat the world, literally) I don't think
the capitalistic structure + unbridled automation is a stable combination.
Because those who own the capital will always prefer an uncomplaining and
efficient worker, the robot, to a human being 9 out of 10 times. And those who
own their labour are, well, outdated. The pace of automation is beyond
unprecedented; it is incomprehensible.

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Houshalter
Scary? That thing is awesome. And totally not threatening. It would be able to
hunt you for 10 minutes and then run out of battery. If it does catch up to
you, you can always go up a stairs, or just kick it over.

AI is of course a serious concern. But this isn't AI, it's a robot.

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rkuykendall-com
> In labs everywhere, experimental robots would leap up from lab benches in a
> murderous rage, locate the door, and—with a tremendous crash—plow into it
> and fall over.

> Those robots lucky enough to have limbs that can operate a doorknob, or to
> have the door left open for them, would have to contend with deceptively
> tricky rubber thresholds before they could get into the hallway.

[https://what-if.xkcd.com/5/](https://what-if.xkcd.com/5/)

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clairity
one of the reasons robots like this look so unnatural is that they're trying
to locomote entirely using active control (i.e., the controller tries to
calculate the correct position and force continuously) with rigid limbs.

animal systems have passive-dynamic components (e.g., spring-mass-damper) that
smooth out discontinuities and inherently self-corrects for many unanticipated
situations. robots that incorporate passive elements (and this robot just
might have some, it's hard to tell from 30 secs of video) would look more
natural and have better self-stabilization.

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robotresearcher
Your first paragraph says "robots like this" then your second paragraph
backpedals since you don't know if this robot has significant passive dynamics
or not. Why not look it up instead of hedging?

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iandanforth
This is very very impressive. Stable dynamic gates over even moderately bumpy
terrain are Hard. Jumping is also hard and the last company to get a solid
electrically powered robot to jump for bought by Google. The tricky thing
though is _heat_. If they aren't doing active cooling then the robot will only
have a few minutes of runtime. In contrast to some other commentors I think if
they wanted this guy to move smoothly they could do so with this hardware,
instead however they are aiming for speed.

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davidw
Reminds me a lot more of a sheep than a cheetah, but still, very impressive
work. It must be an incredible feeling to see something like that come to
fruition.

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ChuckMcM
Nicely done. I'm sure it is pretty fun to debug. All my walking robot
experiments (mostly with RC servos) have had some pretty hilarious not-
actually-walking moments when the gait software gets confused :-) Should be
interesting to see what additional work comes out of this lab.

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fivedogit
I love that lady in the background on her phone, carrying on normally.
Groundbreaking technology running around on the quad at MIT. No big deal.

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at-fates-hands
I would argue the Pronghorn Antelope is actually a better model to replicate
since Cheetah can only maintain their speeds over short distances - as opposed
to the Antelope which can maintain their 60mph speeds over much greater
distances due to their larger hearts and lungs.

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jerf
The technological problem of power density vs. limbs and the control of the
limbs seem fairly separate to me. If we had 10 times more efficient batteries,
this would simply run ten times further without any other changes. Unless the
bottleneck here is heat dissipation in the motors, but even that would be way
easier to fix than our battery problems.

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Lambdanaut
It's so much quieter than the gas powered Boston Dynamics robots! Bringing the
volume level down is essential to many use cases, so it's good to see this
work.

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ErikRogneby
Can it turn?

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spydum
On it's owner? Terrifying. Oh, you meant directionally..

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JetSpiegel
Better start stocking up on EMP grenades and GEP guns...

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nickodell
I'm disappointed. I was expecting to see a video of MIT students chasing after
a robot that escaped from the lab.

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3327
would be amazing if they elaborate on the open source components

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ericcope
did anyone else find the background music inappropriate and distracting from
the awesome research and results?

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readerrrr
Fixed.

[http://www.youtubemultiplier.com/541727ed9d419-skynet3rewfsd...](http://www.youtubemultiplier.com/541727ed9d419-skynet3rewfsdfsdfsdf.php)

Fullscreen the left video for complete experience.

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morewillie
Cheetahs today, Skynet tomorrow.

