The robot was programmed by Katie Byl—currently at the Harvard Microrobotics Lab—and I don't want to be anywhere near it. [Harvard Microbotics and Locomotion via BotJunkie]

Just imagine a Big Dog with a RiSE on its back. The Big Dog chases you down and then it unleashes the RiSE to finish the job. It's designed by Boston Dynamics, the same maniacs behind the Big Dog, so that might be exactly what they're planning. Watch your backs, bipeds. [Kod*lab via Hacked Gadgets]

Now I will have nightmares of about running with the bulls, only the bulls are BigDogs, and I'm not really running... more like briskly walking away... in terror. [Boston Dynamics via BotJunkie]

And that's what it is: A really smart giant dog. Big Dog—which is being developed by robotics company Boston Dynamics—has some of the most advanced artificial intelligence and navigation systems in the planet. In fact, US Army officials are stunned by its programmed behaviors, which make Big Dog extremely helpful in the battlefield.

Big Dog can run along soldiers, walk slowly, or lay down to be loaded or unloaded, all while being aware of the terrain around it. No matter what happens, or how hard it's hit, the robot maintains its course like Captain America, but without falling on the ground under any circumstances. The only way to get him off its path is by a major direct hit, which could mean a rocket or President Obama's defense cuts—although, since it is low cost and not a Cold War-era weapon, it probably will survive the crisis.

Even while they are not yet ready for actual battlefield action, the US Army has high hopes for this beast. They see it as the most effective way to carry all kinds of material, reducing the weight that soldiers have to tug along, freeing them to move faster and be safer.

Right now, they only need to make Big Dogs quieter—they still buzz like a billion angry bees—and increase their autonomy. If there are no unforeseen problems, they will get into the battlefields in just a few years.

With drones now taking over the skies, it's only a matter of time before a Big Dog 2.0 arrives. In fact, many analysts are already pointing at the possibility of bi-pedal robots fighting alongside soldiers or replacing them entirely. Science fiction authors have imagined this scenario many times, from Terminator to Metal Gear Solid 4, in which "geckos"—the two-leg Velociraptor-like fighting robots shown in this video—are clearly inspired by Big Dog's biological design.

For all the technological terror they inspire among anyone who sees them, however, they can't match the hilarious spoof that some troupe did a while ago. Sadly, the idea of Big Dogs, Terminators, or "geckos" taking over the battlefield—or the world—is not funny at all.

It'll have to cope with stairs, water hazards, desert levels of heat and arctic levels of snow and ice, navigate through GPS waypoints, and it'll have to respond to speech and gesture commands—at which point you imagine a soldier commanding it to "sit!" and giggle slightly. But only slightly, as none of these enhancements seem too beyond the pale, given the already amazing development of BigDog.

Just one sad point though: Darpa's labelling the new machine the "Legged Squad Support System" or L3. Would it have been a bit much for the military eggheads at the defense research agency to exercise their imaginations and dub it K9? Much better name. [FedBizOpps via DangerRoom]

Jesús Díaz: WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS SACRED AND GOOD IS THIS?
Peter Furia: The BigDog Beta itself is Beau and me in black tights and turtlenecks.

JD: Why?
PF: This video was just for fun, as was our popular music video "Mac or PC" but Seedwell is our newly created viral marketing company. It was co-founded by David Fine, Beau Lewis and myself. We produce content both for fun and for hire. We are also currently working on viral video campaigns for several other companies, and look forward to working with more and more companies as the demand for creative, viral content increases.

I don't know about their other videos, but if they are this good, these guys are gold. Let's see how viral this one gets.

If you want to contact Peter to hire Seedwell, contact him via email

It looks like an actual biological quadruped. Seeing it climb through rubble, snow, jumping over obstacles like a wild goat, and saving a near-fall on iced ground at the last second (fast forward to the middle of the video) defies belief. It feels so "animal" that I almost feel bad when they hit it to demonstrate how it regains balance on its own.

The new version of the robot can now carry 340 pounds, which is almost triple the previous weight. It looks to me that that $10 million funding they got from Darpa has been put to good use. [IEEE]

[YouTube via UberGizmo]