Lately it seems that there’s alot of animalification going on in the world of robotics. We’ve posted a few of them here recently, but BigDog here probably takes the cake so far. This thing manages to stay vertical walking over snow, rocks, and cinder blocks, and even after slipping on ice or getting kicked around by humans. The movement is so fluid and realistic that it is frightening, and incredibly exciting. Having been funded by DARPA, it’s likely that the first proposed utilities of BigDog would be on the battlefield, but perhaps someday you’ll be able to take one on a walk down the block with your living canine.

New Video of BDI’s BigDog Robot (via IEEE Spectrum Blog)

By Jesse Mann