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DARPA’s Humanoid Robot Can Drop and Give You 20

Apr. 16, 2012 11:00pm Liz Klimas

DARPA and Boston Dynamicss PETMAN Can Climb Stairs and Do Pushups

DARPA and Boston Dynamics’s humanoid robot PETMAN was completed in 2011 to walk like a man. Now, it has been upgraded to climb stairs like a man and do an impressive round of push-ups.

Check out PETMAN’s new tricks:

Before you get creeped out and think PETMAN was created to take over the world, the Huffington Post points out according to Boston Dynamics’s website the robot was created to test chemical protection clothing. Boston Dynamics states:

Unlike previous suit testers, which had to be supported mechanically and had a limited repertoire of motion, PETMAN will balance itself and move freely; walking, crawling and doing a variety of suit-stressing calisthenics during exposure to chemical warfare agents. PETMAN will also simulate human physiology within the protective suit by controlling temperature, humidity and sweating when necessary, all to provide realistic test conditions.

Natural, agile movement is essential for PETMAN to simulate how a soldier stresses protective clothing under realistic conditions. The robot will have the shape and size of a standard human, making it the first anthropomorphic robot that moves dynamically like a real person.

PETMAN took 13 months to design and 17 months to build, not including the more recent refinements that have allowed it to climb stairs or do push-ups. Although you may think climbing stairs isn’t really that big of a deal, in the world of free-standing bipedal robots, having the balance necessarily to perform tasks such as stairs or rough terrain is more difficult than you would imagine.

DARPA and Boston Dynamicss PETMAN Can Climb Stairs and Do Pushups

DARPA has also recently announced its Robotics Challenge, set to take place in October 2012 with a grand prize of $2 million for the team who can help meet the disaster recovery mission goals. According to the press release about the challenge, teams will compete in disaster-response scenarios where the robot will perform tasks similar to those necessary to meet real-world disaster-response requirements.

Comments (58)

Dismayed Veteran
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 10:30am
SkyNet begins.

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- FlamingFartSyndrome
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 11:23am
  Ill be the first to get a transplant!
  
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- Nathaniel Horn
  Posted on April 18, 2012 at 4:15pm
  Speaking of things which creep one out… It looks like a Cylon to me. We’re self destructing in every other possible way, why not with rebellious man-created cyborgs who hate humanity? How many ways can we come up with to self destruct? The possibilities are infinite just like the potential of Americans used to be.
  
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samiam010203
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 9:25am
How soon till one of these things is knocking on doors claiming “i’m looking for sarah connor!”

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- Ruler4You
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 10:16am
  FTA: “walking, crawling and doing a variety of suit-stressing calisthenics during exposure to chemical warfare agents.”
  
  I’m sure this will come in handy, alright.
  
  Report this comment
Fonz777
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 8:24am
can he strut like Travolta?

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SpankDaMonkey
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 8:09am
.
That robot is a strap-on away from being a porn star…….

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- RamonPreston
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 8:37am
  If he can drop and give you 12 the women will buy them faster than they can be manufactured.
  
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BehindBlueEyes
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 7:41am
This kind of stuff reminds me of the OWS robots (aka useful idiots). Love it when they do the mic check and echo what the other robot is chanting. They’re all programmed to perform a function.

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mikenleeds
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 7:23am
big deal , we had better robots 50 years ago

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burned at edges
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 6:41am
Won’t be long before Obama says they must join a union like afscme to work for the government, and pay dues that will go to democrats elections. Then a short time later the robots will stop working, but with legs at least they will be able to go out and march in protests.

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- BehindBlueEyes
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 7:00am
  He’ll also grant them voting rights and they won’t need to show proof of citizenship.
  
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lukerw
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 6:26am
Preparing for the New SS… where Big Government needs Total Loyality of the Guards… to fight the people!

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grannyrecipe
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 5:41am
They really shouldn’t let the robots get drunk before they shoot these videos.

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the_united_states_of_britain
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 2:20am
Sex-bot anybody?? So excited.

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- grudgywoof
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 5:57am
  You Brits would love a spanking robot.
  
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the_united_states_of_britain
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 2:17am
Sex-bot anybody???

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- dissentnow
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 6:43am
  sure, why not?
  
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mtorres20
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 1:44am
I settle for Robot that can get my order straight at a Dunkin Donuts.

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- burned at edges
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 6:34am
  I had to ask…are you a cop?
  
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Master_and_Commander
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 1:10am
yeah, next thing you know we’ll be getting robots that look like Austrian body-builders… lol

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trueamerican40
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 1:09am
I was in the military—covert ops—this type of technology surpasses this article. I wanted to release this knowledge to the murderers of Islam and the elites of China and Russia—Your attempts for world domination and conquest will not succeed. Seriously though, the U.S. and the IDF have alot of secrets up our sleeves. Just kidding…God will be our greatest weapon against the forces of evil. Yahweh’s hands will protect Jerusalem.

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- VoteBushIn12
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 1:15am
  Hahaha
  
  Can’t tell if that post was serious or not, but I had a good laugh. Thanks.
  
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EndTheFedNOW
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 12:08am
DARPA, putting chem-trails in the air since the 70′s. Gotta love em. These are the guys who make the really cool super secret weapons we never know about. Besides the whole geoengineering thing I could admire them.

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- ProgressiveDeist267
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 12:14am
  There is no such thing as chemtrails.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory
  
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- EndTheFedNOW
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 12:33am
  lol brother, its going to take alot more than a wikipedia explanation to change my mind. After years of reading and listening to first hand accounts from people in the media. And seeing them. But hey, the US has the highest cancer rate in the world, autusim is off the charts were all taking in BPA, Flouride and GMO’s. Chemtrails are just another part of the major softkill weapon that the eugenicists eliet are using to dumb down and kill the America public.
  
  (insert tin foil hat comments below)
  
  Report this comment
ProgressiveDeist267
Posted on April 16, 2012 at 11:52pm
As a fan of robots I find this awesome. We’re finally moving up!

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- inblack
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 12:30am
  LOL – I find it pitiful. 60 years and we’ve poorly simulated old people stumbling up the stairs?
  
  This is the society that declared God dead and thinks it can create life.
  
  Our tallest building was built almost 50 years ago.
  We cannot replicate the Apollo mission.
  The largest damn was 1960.
  Largest bridge in the US 1930s
  Last nuclear reactor site 1970
  Fastest plane 1963
  
  What has the US produced lately?
  – A Chinese built iPhone, $15 Trillion in debt and a generation of deadbeats.
  
  Report this comment
- lukerw
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 7:38am
  And… Man created in his own image… the Cylon!
  
  Report this comment
- RamonPreston
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 8:34am
  @Inblack: Maybe we can’t replicate the moon landings because we never went to the moon.It was all staged at Area 51. Point #1: The luner rover wouldn’t fit in the LEM but there it was on the moon. Point#2: The astronauts docked with the mother ship at 1000s of miles per hour WITH NO WINDOW? Point #3: Anyone going through the Van Allen belt would have been fried by radiation by none of our astronauts even got sick.Lots more evidence.
  
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- Wiseone1w
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 11:01am
  @INBLACK – When referring to a structure used to regulate the flow of water to create artificial reservoirs and hydroelectric facilities, the proper word is “dam.”
  
  Report this comment
- inblack
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 5:54pm
  @WISEONE1W
  
  You are true to your name. Thank you.
  
  My apology to the blaze readers.
  
  Report this comment
FreedomPurveyor
Posted on April 16, 2012 at 11:29pm
“Before you get creeped out and think PETMAN was created to take over the world, the Huffington Post points out according to Boston Dynamics’s website the robot was created to test chemical protection clothing. Boston Dynamics states:”

Hmm, so they’re making robots that wear chemical suits… perhaps to protect them from the chemical agents that are expected to be present in the areas they are deployed to????

DEFINITELY created to take over the world

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- The-Monk
  Posted on April 16, 2012 at 11:35pm
  @FreedomPurveyor
  “…the robot was created to test chemical protection clothing…”
  
  That should make unhappy campers out of them…
  “Welcome home honey, how was your day?”
  “You won’t beleive the chemicals those Humans sprayed at me today!”
  
  Report this comment
- burned at edges
  Posted on April 17, 2012 at 6:45am
  (wave of hand)…thes aren’t the droids you are looking for.
  
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welloddyfriggindah
Posted on April 16, 2012 at 11:29pm
Does Petman need an ID to vote, or is he programmed to vote like dead democrats?

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Stoic one
Posted on April 16, 2012 at 11:23pm
interesting

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Think It Thru
Posted on April 16, 2012 at 11:20pm
Better be careful pushing Pet Man like that when he’s on the treadmill, he just may remember it….

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The-Monk
Posted on April 16, 2012 at 11:19pm
Scientist that build robots should not build stairs…

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Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on April 16, 2012 at 11:18pm
First a robot that can run faster than a horse, now a robot that can exercise. This is really just the first step in building an android that can win the Boston marathon, they are sick of the Kenyans beating them……wait, isn’t our President Kenyan? Or is that Keyesian.

Now if they can make a robot that will fill in for the OWS people, at least we wouldn’t have poo and Body Odor all over the place, just used batteries and lubricant……wait, with OWS we have that already.

Nevermind.

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Old_Bones
Posted on April 16, 2012 at 11:14pm
We’re a long way from Commander Data.

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THXll38
Posted on April 16, 2012 at 11:13pm
iRobot damn. That shiz is freaky and cool at the same time.

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JACKTHETOAD
Posted on April 16, 2012 at 11:08pm
And Petman thought, “Wait’ll I find a way to get these damned cables offa me.”

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- The-Monk
  Posted on April 16, 2012 at 11:22pm
  @JACKTHETOAD
  And It will then call us ManPet…
  
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- Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
  Posted on April 16, 2012 at 11:27pm
  Hal, open the Pod Bay doors…….Hal……
  
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- JACKTHETOAD
  Posted on April 16, 2012 at 11:39pm
  “Good morning, Dave. I’m mobile now. You’ll never make the escape pod, or yank my brains out. Moohaha”.
  
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- JACKTHETOAD
  Posted on April 16, 2012 at 11:46pm
  @MONK – As long as they’re not liberals.
  
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