October 27, 2009 4:13 PM PDT

Petman walking bot is like BigDog's 'human' master

by Sean Fallon
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I'm sure you are all well-acquainted with the crazy quadrupled BigDog robot, but if it had a master to walk with, it would probably look something like the Petman.

Actually, the similarity is not surprising considering that the walking robot was designed by Boston Dynamics, the same company behind BigDog. Petman has been in development for some time now, but this is the first chance we have had to view his human-like stride.

The military plans to use it to test out clothing for soldiers that needs to be completely protective and not strain or open up under any sort of human articulated movement. It's capable of crawling, as well as walking at 3.2 mph. And like the Big Dog, it can keep its balance when you shove it.

This story originally appeared on Gizmodo.

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by iroq321 October 27, 2009 4:25 PM PDT
boston dynamics will be the end of the human race =/
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