You might remember Atlas, the Pentagon funded robot that could stand on one foot whilst getting hit by a goddamn wrecking ball. Well, turns out that was just the beginning. Now this thing can (gasp) walk up stairs. When the robot revolution finally comes, there will be nowhere to hide.
By being able to walk up stairs effectively, Atlas is hardly Robocop, but he at least manages to beat out ED-209, who totally couldn’t handle stairs for shit.
Obviously these robots are in the absolute early stages of development, but if history has taught us anything its that these things tend to iterated terrifyingly quickly. It wouldn’t surprise me if this thing was chasing us down streets lobbing cinder blocks at us in say… 20 years tops.
Via Gizmodo
Comments
9 responses to “One Step Closer To A Hellish, Terrifying Robot Future”
I for one would like to welcome our new overlords !
That last test cemented it in my mind as terrifying.
Yes, but can it walk without the support pulleys and ropes? Until it can, not going to get far.
It doesn’t use the ropes to move. They are just a safety net if something goes wrong. The tether supplies power. Everything else is it’s own balance and motion.
Power and speed are still the main issues.
IT’S COMING RIGHT FOR US!
http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/22142083.jpg
I see you stair climb and raise you running: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHwgBitYMIA
So they found my stair climbing subroutine, good for them!
Stairs – a Claptrap’s nemesis. With all the disabled ramps in this world, I still say treads are a much better alternative. The only use for a humanoid robot would be to pilot human vehicles – which would do well to have some more automation. That and infiltration and assassination. >.>
http://terminator.wikia.com/wiki/HK-Tank
Sigh, I hate to break it to you guys but at no point in history has robots ever been destructive in society because they have never existed at this level or above before. I think people watch movies and FORGET that it’s 100% made up bullshit.
You will likely see these machines assisting in dirty cleanups in the future and maybe if the price is right, helping people around the house. If anything such robots (human ability like) will truly benefit mankind since we as a species fail to help each other -> (think elderly and disabled people who are left to rot and die by society because we don’t want to spend the time or money)
This is not to say the military won’t program these things to exterminate people in war zones, but the political/public repercussions for those sort of things will be fast & extreme, and those responsible will quickly find themselves fighting 100s of millions of very angry people (that no robot army will be able to deal with lets face it!)