[SGVLUG] Fw: [HP3000-L] Biomechanical evolution of vertebrate evolution

[James Neff]

That was pretty neat to watch.  I wonder how the navigation works.  I 
used to work as a systems admin for General Dynamics where they built 
robots for the army (Linux-based OS on the robots).  Their big project 
was an autonomous navigation system which could go from point A to point 
B without running over people or buildings. 

It's too bad they couldn't get some of these research projects to work 
together.  Wasn't that what the Internet was for anyways?

--Jim



Tom Emerson wrote:
> heh heh heh -- finally, my main three mailing lists can come together on the same not-entirely-on-topic post :)
>
> This is REALLY COOL
>
>  -- for the linux folks, you may recall the talk we had with Virgil Griffith regarding "artificial life" and Polyworld, well, this is "real" world...
>
>  -- for the Rocket folks -- the ultimate recovery "vehicle"
>
> ----- Forwarded Message ----
> From: Wirt Atmar <atmar at AICS-RESEARCH.COM>
> To: HP3000-L at RAVEN.UTC.EDU
> Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 12:58:06 PM
> Subject: [HP3000-L] Biomechanical evolution of vertebrate evolution
>
> I posted the following a few minutes ago to a vertebrate paleontology list that 
> I participate in, and I thought that the list might enjoy the video that I 
> mention in the posting as well.
>
> Wirt Atmar
>
> ========================================== 
>
> In a burst of youthful enthusiasm 32 years ago, when I founded AICS 
> Research, the "AICS" stood for "Artificially Intelligent Cybernetic Systems." We 
> long ago tired of explaining what that phrase meant so we condensed the 
> name to simply AICS. Over time, we moved away from robotics and became 
> primarily a software supplier to Hewlett-Packard and their customers, but the 
> original intention was to design and build self-learning, biologically-inspired 
> autonomous mechanisms.
>
> With that introduction, let me show you this video and simultaneously express 
> my admiration for what the people at Boston Dynamics have been able to 
> accomplish. This 3 minute video clip was released just a few days ago:
>
>    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww
>
> The clip is of "BigDog." It is at once eminently reminiscent of naturally evolved 
> locomotion and at the same time enormously unsettling in its alienness.
>
> BigDog has a gasoline engine to power the hydraulic system acuators that act 
> as its musculature. Proprioception is accomplished by angle and pressure 
> sensors located at every joint and foot pad, and the CNS is encephalized in a 
> central CPU, which also processes visual and equilibrium inputs as well.
>
> The end result is quite impressive.
>
> Like most work of this kind, it is funded by the US military, in this case, the 
> Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), but DARPA is lot more 
> willing to fund flights of fancy than any of the civilian research granting 
> agencies and at much higher dollar amounts, and a lot of good work does 
> eventually come out their efforts. The internet was one of their funded 
> projects.
>
> Wirt Atmar
>
> ===========================================
>
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