Jumping Robots, Nano Quadrotor Swarms and More Cool Videos

Boston Dynamics has been making robots that make people go “holy shit!” for quite a few years. I’m not sure who their mad scientists are over there but they are indeed mad and sciency… and brilliant.

They recently developed a robot called the Sand Flea that can jump 30 feet high.

The Sand Flea is a neat robot, but the Big Dog and Petman videos are plain impressive. Big Dog elevates robotics to another level.

When I say another level, what I mean is they put their product in the world and try to break it. When you see other billion dollar companies showcase their advanced systems it’s in a very controlled environment under very specific conditions.

Arguably the most state of the art robot out there is the Honda Asimo and while incredibly impressive I would say it mostly relies on the previously mentioned factors. I don’t think you could dump Asimo into the woods and try to kick it over, most likely it would just lay down and cry.

Most other things you see around the internet involves Asimo clones (NAO robot, RoboNova, etc.) mostly reimplemented as toys and creepy face robots:

Another badass video:

And things that come out of the GRASP lab with quadrotors. Not technically robotics but very cool.



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