Boston Dynamics’ robots won’t be held back by puny humans
Are you looking for the exact moment when the robots decide to turn on their human creators? You might want to mark this day on your calendar. Boston Dynamics has posted video of a SpotMini test where it gauged the bot’s ability to adjust to interference — in this case, from a pesky human. The quadruped managed to open a door despite a human pushing its hand down with a hockey stick, pushing the door closed and even tugging on its ‘tail.’ It clearly struggled, but its ability to adapt and rebalance left it unfazed.
This certainly isn’t the first time Boston Dynamics has subjected its robots to abuse, and the company even goes out of its way to address the elephant in the room: no, the robot isn’t hurt or irritated by that cruelty. It’s not actually going to revolt, and the lessons learned here could be useful for search and rescue or other situations where a robot might have to endure all kinds of resistance. Still, it’s hard not to sympathize at least a little with the SpotMini — if it ever develops feelings, it’ll point to this test as the reason it turned resentful.
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