Petman? Oh Come On!

You tell me the first thing that came to mind when I saw this DARPA video.   With the camo on the damn thing  is all but indistinguishable from a human corps-man.  

The article says this about the...what...robot?  Yeah I guess....anyway:

• The PETMAN robot was developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from the DoD CBD program. It is used to test the performance of protective clothing designed for hazardous environments. 

Then they say things about micro climates, sweating and stuff...but dollars to doughnuts we see it in the field with heavy packs or even dare I say it, mounted weapons?  Even the mounted part need not happen.  But if you have a weapons platform that can use weapons already in the theater of conflict or able to pick up and used any light to medium weapon would be golden for the same reason that a lot of American weapons started chambering NATO rounds, it makes them more universal in the field.  I can't be the first person to say ... hey  ground troops! As long as it doesn't have that stupid whine that big dog and the headless horse has.

Mark my word on this....

Meet the Marine's LS3

Remember that walking monstrosity from Boston Dynamics called Big Dog.  The unit with an engine that sounded like an angry wasp's nest and along with a weird gait made for more than just a little humor.  Well not to be caught sleeping, BD has developed a unit for the Marines with the designation LS3.  It is much larger than the earlier prototype, quieter, capable of carrying 400 lbs., can move autonomously but also takes voice commands.  However it looks for all the world like a headless cow, a headless robo-cow.

 
Testing will continue on through 2014.....wanna bet how long it will be before we see films of this thing with either horns or a cow tail...  Not long I suspect.  Or hey, does this mean the end of cow tipping?

Petman: Boston Dynamics New Humanoid Test Platform

Hey, check out this video of PETMAN from Boston Dynamics. You know, the makers of that whacked quadruped Big Dog? Now they have this full body sim. No, it's not for fighting (yeah right, I think Skynet would have something to say about that...you know, minigun here, rocket launcher there....and you are well on your way to a t-500 or maybe even a 800 series....) But as the Dvice article puts it:

• engineers are using this ..... hardware to (test) chemical suits that could protect military personnel from attack

Not only can it simulate body movements but it:

• is able to simulate sweating, respiring and changes in body temperature.

Check out the unit in action below and you can read the complete Dvice article here