Sooner Than We Think

So let's see this hombre!

There's a new Terminator in town; his name is Atlas. And he is ug-lee.

T-1000, meet Atlas

Boston Dynamics has been busy working on an entrant for DARPA's Virtual Robotics Challenge, a contest aimed to create robots that can help in disaster situations. Of course, they could also be used by the military...

Now, Boston Dynamics has revealed its entrant: A 6-foot-tall humanoid robot called Atlas.

Compared to the bumbling, tottering, and slow humanoid robots that have hit the media before, you may be shocked at how resilient Atlas is. The machine has sophistication that approaches the stuff of science fiction. It can cope with unexpected trip hazards, survive being knocked off balance by a 20-pound weight, and if the tricks of its developmental predecessor, Petman, are anything to go by, it can climb over obstacles and autonomously navigate to a certain degree.

And there are robot pack mules in the works here and other robot/cyborg thingies here. The pack mule is exciting as it is being designed to carry up to 400 pounds and operate continuously for 24 hours. It could be a real life saver for soldiers wounded on an active battlefield.