This Week In Bots: Animaltastic Innovation

AlphaDog If Boston Dynamics’ BigDog quadruped robot gives you the willies with its amazingly animal-like skills at tromping across difficult land at speed, then don’t watch the video of BD’s newest iteration of its military assistant robot, AlphaDog. BigDog was really the development prototype for AlphaDog, suffering from an enormously noisy engine and fairly limited operating range and payload powers. AlphaDog, on the other hand, is closer to a production dog droid that could actually accompany troops on the battlefield: It’s quieter, can carry 400 pounds and run 20 miles without needing more gas, versus BigDog’s 340 pounds and 12-mile range.

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This Week In Bots: Animaltastic Innovation