43 Replies to “Science Reinvents The Donkey”

  2. Yeah, that’s pretty cool alright, but if I saw that in the woods coming at me, I’d be shooting.

  3. Maybe now the Lieberal party can have a new leader built to replace that book pecking chicken of theirs…I’m sure a chainsaw speaking robot would be a better communicator than Dion.

  5. Ya see, it’s things like this that keep me coming back to this blog again and again 😉
    Where’s Wornout’s tech department?…still looking for the robo-bootlick??

  8. Actually, depending upon reliability, that thing would have advantages over pack animals in mountainous places like Afghanistan. With pack animals you are limited by the availability of grass and water. Also, they have to be tied or hobbled at night, they can be stolen or run off, and they can have a pesky habit of untying themselves (I have known several horses that could do this) or otherwise escaping. Those things could be a good way for men to get gear into very remote places even if the weather made resupply from the air impossible or impractical.
    Also, it would look like Star Wars.

  9. Could you imagine this built to carry a human? Quiet it down and throw away the wheel chair. Amazing…….the mind reels with the potential uses for good.
    Very cool. Uses for bad may pay better though.

  10. Agreed .. very impressive.
    Call me stupid but can anyone explain why it makes noise when operating OUTDOORS but is quite inside. Yes .. I realize that indoors it’s plugged in … but that doesn’t explain that nasty noise.

  11. Am I the only one who thinks this could be computer generated images?
    Yes it looks completely real but so did the dinosaurs in the movie Jurassic Park…

  12. mm
    It Sounds like the outdoor model has a chainsaw motor drive.
    It sounds like Stihl.
    Indoors it’s apparently driven by a quieter motor that’s on the other end of those cables.

  13. Cool technology looking for an app…lots in emergency services and military. Good for mountainous regions if you could quiet it down.
    Good for searching in rubble and rough areas and have it take supplies and communication equipment with it.
    the stability is the amazing thing….Star Wars? I fear it looks more like the opening scenes of Terminator ;->

  14. Put bombs on them, send them into Taliban caves and press the button. Can you imagine the surprize before it goes BOOM.

  15. Wouldn’t it be better to take all the money we spend on stuff like that and use it on big bombs to drop on people?
    And then actually drop the bombs on people instead of whatever it is we’re doing now?

  16. I would think they should invest in a muffler…a muffler with several pipes of different lengths and attached to a bag. I’m sure the Scots could tune that up quite nicely!
    Oh, Danny-boy!

  17. That’s remarkable. Watching the video, I even found myself experiencing a twinge of empathy for the machine when it slipped on a patch of ice. Its movements are very lifelike.
    I’m sure the noise of the chainsaw engine could be better suppressed in a production model.

  18. Yes, drop them not so much on people as say bunkers in Iran where radio active materials are being concentrated in centrafuges . . say . . perhaps. = TG

  19. From what I have read elsewhere, the motor is from a 1/4 scale model plane. It probably has no muffler at all. A production model would be much quieter.
    Pat

  20. Just remember, while watching that, to stash some steel cored ammo for the days when these Things will be hunting us down to put chips in our brains.

  22. That thing is getting better and better, eh? I’ve been following their progress since they started with the early pogo-stick robots at the MIT Leg Lab, every year they get better and better.
    The howling chainsaw motor runs the electric generator and hydraulics. I’m sure a production version would be much quieter. Make a nice platform for a heavy machine gun, eh? Those things are a stone bitch to carry around.
    Still, all geekitude aside, you’ve got to wonder about the efficiency of a machine like that vs. a plain ol’ donkey. True, the donkey will get tired, but the robot can’t forage for 92 octane at the side of the road.

  23. Danggumit,, if they can use Technology to build futuristic machines like this then let’s build us a fuel-injection system that gets 100 mpg.
    ,

  25. Aaron wrote —
    …these Things will be hunting us down to put chips in our brains
    You say that like it’s a bad thing.

  27. Looks like four guys with a dog sled load, using a stop action camera to produce the jittery effect as well as the jerky apperance of the so called “robot”.
    By the way isnt Darpa the name of the group of murdered scientists with their instilations on the tv show Lost?

  28. “gordinkneehill said… I even found myself experiencing a
    twinge of empathy for the machine when it slipped on a
    patch of ice…”
    damn, me too… and i find that disturbing… in ways i don’t
    even wanna consider.
    *

  29. darpa – defense advanced research projects agency is the very same that produced communications systems in response to cold war / nuclear war threat. – today we call it the internet

  31. Hey!
    Just buy 6 or seven of them, slap Nazi uniforms on two of them, slap CHRC buttons on the others, and you can have your very own live CHRC kangaroo court, replete with a punk rock soundtrack blaring out of the rear orifice of the wimpy one.

  33. Posted by: Karl at March 28, 2008 10:52 AM
    Those things could be a good way for men to get gear into very remote places.
    It’s a DARPA project, just like the internet was.

  41. The computer programming to handle all the feedback and choose the next move must be brilliant.

  42. kate said
    “”””””Plus, you can buy a donkey for $200, and they have babies for free…””””
    I ain’t touching that witha 10 foot pole:-)))))

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