[caption id="attachment_3222" align="aligncenter" width="244"] WildCat[/caption]
Sounds like a lawn mower, it looks like a pile of scrap metal, but the move is elegant as athletes from the animal kingdom. So the world at the end of last week introduced a four-legged robot Wildcat (Wild Cat) by Boston Dynamics. It is a small company created by experts from the famous MIT Technology.
Robot Wild Cat arises in grant development agency of the U.S. armed forces DARPA, which is in charge of risk and advanced research. The design is based on an older machine Cheetah (Cheetah), also made by Boston Dynamics, which is currently the fastest-running robot with a record of over 45 kilometers per hour.
WildCat-U.S. Army created a robotic creature that runs like a gazelle.
We wrote about Cheetah at a time when he had played only about power 30 km / h , but even then was the fastest in its category. "Gearard", however, was powered by a permanently connected electrical cables, so outside the lab never looked.
Wild Cat is much slower, yet reaches a speed of around 25 kilometers per hour, but on the other hand, it is due to the internal combustion engine substantially independent. It seems that the first generation of autonomous robots could be unexpected (almost steaminess ) concentration of power on fossil fuels and modern electronics. Batteries despite undeniable progress in recent years, still can not achieve that fossil fuels closer to at least reach .
This "hybrid" trend suggests a different prototype that Boston Dynamics is developing in cooperation not only with DARPA, but already the U.S. Marine Corps. It is a machine called BigDog (Big Dog, Czech perhaps even better Maximizes) to serve as a means of transport for cargo transport in impassable terrain for different types of vehicles.
[caption id="attachment_3223" align="aligncenter" width="420"] Wild Cat 1[/caption]
Meanwhile a working prototype of this robot looks considerably less elegant than WildCat and not nearly as fast. In its current form would be for about 24 hours exceed 20 km in the field with a load of 200 kilograms. Role Wildcat yet is not so clear, according to DARPA could be used in the rescue, but the statement is very vague.
BigDog is able to move for designated human conductor and follow his voice commands, but also manages to move along a single route. He can while avoiding obstacles and can cope with difficult and uneven terrain (you can do in the field WildCat, we do not know)
From published videos is clear that BigDog is not yet flawless in the field, and from time to time without the help of people can not do, but on the other hand, it is equally clear that the machine is definitely not yet reached the peak of their abilities. The internal combustion engine could also serve as a charger for electronic equipment of soldiers, which every year is weighed down.
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p>Wild Cat yet so clear assignment does not, it is rather a demonstration of technological possibilities. But it shows how "Maxi dog" and similar purpose machinery to accelerate so as to be practically useful indeed.
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