Boston Dynamics Creates First Wave of Robot Infantry

Boston Dynamics, the eerily self-described "engineering company that specializes in robotics and human simulation," released a new video of its "Big Dog" all-terrain robot last month. The video below demonstrates the ability of this robot quadruped to climb hills, walk through snow, recover from being kicked around, negotiate ice, jump over things, and scale a large pile of rocks. In other words, it's pretty much the most terrifying robot ever. Put some lasers and armor on a few dozen of these things and boom: a super-creepy robot army.



As if that's not enough, further examination of Boston Dynamics website reveals a production slate of several other scary robots. The most familiar of the bunch is the RiSE, who some may recognize as the spidery robots with acid-filled needles that killed Gene Simmons in the 1984 Tom Selleck-versus-robots movie, Runaway.









Who is funding the creation of such monsters, you ask? Why, our good friends at DARPA, the mad science wing of the pentagon, of course!