This Video of a Cyborg Quadriped Will Have You Gasping in Terror

By Nancy Atkinson - October 4, 2013 at 4:37 PM UTC | Site News
wildcat.jpg

This is both wonderful and terrifying. A DARPA-funded four-legged robot named WildCat is being developed by a company called

Boston Dynamics

(tagline of "Changing Your Idea of What Robots Can Do"). They've previously developed a humanoid capable of walking across multiple terrains called

Atlas

, and the scarily-fast

Cheetah

which set a new land-speed record for legged robots. But the WildCat is a brand new robot created to run fast on all types of terrain, and so far its top speed has been about 16 mph on flat terrain using both bounding and galloping gaits.

The video, released yesterday, shows WildCat's best performance so far. Don't let the sound fool you -- yes, it does sound like a weed-whacker. But as soon as it raises up off its haunches, you know you're doomed.

I've been trying to figure out what sci-fi equivalent might describe it best: the Terminator's pet? A lethal, non-fuzzy

Daggit

from Battlestar Galactica? An

AT-AT Walker

on speed?

At any rate ... Yikes!

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com