• LettyWhiterock@lemmy.world
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    2 minutes ago

    It’s kinda funny how these dogs went from cute and interesting robot developments to tools of the military industrial complex. The people who designed these are disgusting and depraved.

  • bthest@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Probably get about two or three lbs of copper out of the motors alone. Still not worth the gas unless you’re going to fill up the back of your truck with em though.

  • njordomir@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    I wonder how far one of these would fly if it wandered onto a road and got hammered by a semi doing 55mph.

  • Wilco@lemmy.zip
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    21 hours ago

    Would be funny to hear about a kid with a slingshot or something taking these out.

    • Stampy@lemmy.ca
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      19 hours ago

      I’m sure some hackers could figure out the wireless communications and hijack…

      • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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        19 hours ago

        Or a big ass anti static bag and a few doods with masks. As far as easy to steal $100K+ items go these seem kinda like a great target.

  • Kite@sh.itjust.works
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    23 hours ago

    One step closer to a Horizon Zero Dawn future. Just let me live long enough to see the dinobots.

  • PlaidBaron@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    So a robot you can kick over is better than dogs with actual teeth? Its a good thing tech bros are dumb as fuck.

    • Logical@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Well you can’t attach a machine gun to a dog with teeth. I mean you can, but it won’t hit anything.

  • nshibj@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    guarding some of the country’s biggest data centers

    The country, ah yes the only place that exists on the internet, the almighty one powerful country to rule them all. THE. COUNTRY.

  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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    24 hours ago

    the coolest thing about these dogs? you can break them with a directional wireless jamming device.

    also known as a .308 Winchester.

  • EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com
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    22 hours ago

    Why quadruped instead of wheels? Just seems gimmicky to me.

    Legs have some advantages over wheels, but unless these can climb or jump it seems to be the lesser choice. If it can climb or jump, then I’ll stfu.

    • theneverfox@pawb.social
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      14 hours ago

      Because wheels aren’t all that great in less than carefully managed paths. Quadrupedal motion is just fine in most all situations… Wheels are most efficient, followed by swimming with boyancy, then flying with the wind, then bipedal motion… But quadrupedal motion isn’t everywhere for no reason. It’s very stable and robust. It’s very practical and forgiving in most all situations

        • theneverfox@pawb.social
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          4 hours ago

          I mean, sure, wheels would require an essentially impossible evolutionary path, but they’re still very dependent on terrain

          Some goats can climb grades no wheel could touch. Wheels have issues with long grasses and roots, don’t work great if they don’t have good contact with the terrain, aren’t good for climbing or ledges, and fast to wear in dirty environments

          You can specialize to overcome these challenges, but they’re less general purpose. Wheels that would let you travel over uneven terrain need to be big and/or very complex

          Wheels work really, really well on suitable surfaces, but they’re specialist technology. Quadrepeds are very stable and control their weight distribution much better

          From an engineering standpoint, you’d be better off putting the robot dogs on skateboards or in a wheeled carrier then making the kind of high-torque wheels that can lock to work like feet when needed - that’s what we use when designing wheels for the kinds of travel these dogs were designed for

          Wheels are obviously incredibly useful tech, but they’re not the ideal solution for every problem

          • EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com
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            10 minutes ago

            Tracks are the “wheels” solution to bad terrain, which also includes soft surfaces (e.g. snow, mud). Even an excavator can climb ~35 degrees, and a lighter less top-heavy tracked vehicle should be able to do a bit better. Compared to legs, tracked vehicles are faster, more efficient, and more durable.

            Goats are exceptional climbers, but animals use legs as part of a full-body motion. Slapping legs onto a box isn’t the same as putting legs on a torso that also bends, twists, and flexes.

            I mean I guess it’s part of the iterative process of improving quadruped robots, but at this stage of development it still seems gimmicky.

    • MerryJaneDoe@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      You can watch some videos on YouTube, if you really want to learn. It’s interesting, sometimes in a full-dystopian nightmare fuel kind of way. Yes, we are at the point where some of these robots can climb and jump.

      It’s a gimmick, though, for sure. Just like human-mimicking androids are a gimmick. The money for robotics is in manufacturing.

      But I’ll bet there will always be an obscenely wealthy person who is willing to pay for a cool looking robot prototype.

    • OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip
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      22 hours ago

      I think it’s for rough terrain, like carrying packs of supplies through war zones. So not full climbing but at least able to step over rocks and debris.

  • Jiral@lemmy.org
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    1 day ago

    Wouldn’t it be cheaper to pay vastly more versatile human guards a decent wage to guard those or more of those instead of those robots?

    • Soup@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Pay a person?? Give a real human being money?!?

      These people would rather burn a million dollars in front of a homeless person than give that person $1,000. It’s extra cruel when you realize that society would make that $1,000 back and then some if it were to help that person escape their poverty cycle.

    • HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 day ago

      Basically yea, you’re paying a guard at most 45k a year in most places. I highly doubt these fucking things will last 4 years without major maintenance which will probably cost a month or two of a guards wages. So long term it costs far more compared to wages, but when you factor in labour laws and insurance it’s probably still cheaper to just hire people.

        • ViceroTempus@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          It’s only a matter of time till “birds aren’t real” isn’t satire. I for one welcome our new robot overlords

          spoiler

          right into a pile of magnets

          .