Fed2 Star - the newsletter for the space trading game Federation 2

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by ibgames

EARTHDATE: January 10, 2016

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REAL LIFE NEWS: BIGDOG ROBOT SENT BACK TO THE KENNEL

by Hazed

The US military has decided not to continue with its tests of the BigDog robot pack animal.

The large robots were developed by Boston Dynamics, now owned by Google, to carry up to 400lb of supplies. The final design succeeded in doing that, and was able to cope with varied terrain and operate without a human controller, but it had one big problem: it was so noisy that it risked giving away the position of the Marines it was supporting.

The racket is because BigDog is powered by a petrol engine. A smaller version, called Spot, was electric-powered but could only carry 40lb – and it needed a human to guide it. Click the link below to see videos of the two pack robots in action.

Both projects have been shelved by the military, after a cost of $32 million. But I am sure this won’t be the last we’ll see of BigDog and Spot – there must be non-military applications they can be used for where stealth isn’t important.

Meanwhile, just before Christmas, Boston Dynamic got into the seasonal spirit and released a video of a team of Spots pulling a sleigh – see the second link below. Charming? Creepy? You decide!

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/29/us_marines_kill_off_bigdog_robot/
http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/22/heres-a-video-of-boston-dynamics-awesome-big-dog-robot-pulling-santas-sleigh/

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