JeffreyBarke.net

BigDog is a dynamically stable quadruped robot created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics with Foster-Miller, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Harvard University Concord Field Station.

BigDog is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the hopes that it will be able to serve as a robotic pack mule to accompany soldiers in terrain too rough for conventional vehicles. Instead of wheels or treads, BigDog uses four legs for movement, allowing it to move across surfaces that would defeat wheels. The legs contain a variety of sensors, including joint position and ground contact. BigDog also features a laser gyroscope and a stereo vision system.

BigDog is 1 meter (3.3 ft) long, stands 0.7 meters (2.3 ft) tall, and weighs 75 kilograms (170 lb), about the size of a small mule. It is capable of traversing difficult terrain at 5.3 kilometers per hour (3.3 mph), carry 154 kilograms (340 lb) and climb a 35 degree incline. Locomotion is controlled by an onboard computer that receives input from the robot's various sensors. Navigation and balance are also managed by the control system.

Source: YouTube and Wikipedia

Murata Boy, Murata Manufacturing's bicycling robot, is capable of riding unassisted. It can balance, pedal and direct the bicycle (such as turning to avoid obstacles). Learn more about Murata Boy.

Source: YouTube

Unfortunately, embedding is disabled by request, but watch the amazing 1977 video from Kraftwerk's song, The Robots. The two screen grabs I took don't do it justice.

→ Watch the video.

One of my lifelong goals is to become a robot, and this post is a celebration of some depictions of the robot/cyborg in pop culture.

Obviously, such a celebration wouldn't be complete without mentioning Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

As a robot, I intend to follow Asimov's laws fastidiously. However, Park Chan Wook's incredibly beautiful, affecting and entertaining film I'm a Cyborg, but That's OK, features a young female cyborg with seven laws (evils) of her own:

And, finally, the lyrics to I, Robot by the incomparable Screeching Weasel:

I am a robot
I might be paranoid
But I'm a living
breathing humanoid
I am a rhombus
I plod around like dough
And I'm secure in
everything I know
Am I American
Blue metal under skin
No I'm not human
I am a robot
I never have a doubt
I live inside a circle
and I can't get out
I am mechanical
I don't question anything
My TV logic solves all
my problems for me
Am I American
Am I a Gilligan
No I’m not human