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>and ran them into the ground. They weren't doing too great at the time of purchase. I imagine this was another patent farm buyout and then sold, sans importan
by drzaiusapelord 9y ago
>and ran them into the ground.
They weren't doing too great at the time of purchase. I imagine this was another patent farm buyout and then sold, sans important patents, to someone else.
BD doesn't really have a product. There's nothing to sell. Even the military scoffs at these very noisy[1] and difficult to maintain robots, especially when they have a literal army of 18 year olds who don't mind carrying 40lbs packs into battle.
BD makes pretty demos and does good research but it can't be monetized, yet, if ever.
[1] https://qz.com/582991/the-us-marines-wont-be-using-googles-robot-dogs-because-they-fail-a-pretty-basic-test/ https://qz.com/582991/the-us-marines-wont-be-using-googles-r...
Kyle Olson, a spokesperson for the Marines, told military.com on Dec. 22 that the noise the LS3’s gas-powered engine gave off was tactically rather unhelpful. “As Marines were using it, there was the challenge of seeing the potential possibility because of the limitations of the robot itself,” Olson said. “They took it as it was: a loud robot that’s going to give away their position.”
- Animats 9y agoThere was a subcontract from BD to some other company to develop a small, quiet Diesel powerplant, but not much came of that. Small Diesels are hard. (The US military is all-Diesel. Gasoline tankers have no place on the modern battlefield, with few safe lines of communication. If somebody puts a bullet hole in a Diesel tanker, you slap a patch over the leak and go on.)
- jlavine 9y agoYour comment is right, but it seems BD are still developing their robots to be more practical, and may eventually have something they could sell for use in the field. BD have battery-powered robots much quieter than the gas-powered Big Dog: Handle (https://www.bostondynamics.com/handle https://www.bostondynamics.com/handle), Spot (https://www.bostondynamics.com/spot https://www.bostondynamics.com/spot), Atlas (https://www.bostondynamics.com/atlas https://www.bostondynamics.com/atlas) Spot was mentioned in the article you linked to as being quieter but able to carry less weight and less autonomous than Big Dog. The Marines are resuming limited testing with a version of Spot upgraded for greater autonomy in 2018: http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/04/05/spots-back-marines-resume-testing-with-four-legged-robot.html http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/04/05/spots-back-mar...