Boston Dynamics is an engineering and robotics design company that produces advanced technology for the U.S. military with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and DI-GUY, software for realistic human simulation. The company was founded in 1992, where it began as a spin-off of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Today, Boston Dynamics is a wholly owned subsidiary of Google, Inc. According to their representatives, \u201cWe have an extraordinary technical team of engineers and scientists. The team seamlessly combines advanced analytical thinking with boots-in-the-mud practicality. We pride ourselves in building machines that are both innovative and that actually work.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was that kind of analytical thinking and boots-in-the-mud practically that led engineers at Boston Dynamics to develop one of their most unique robots to date: BigDog. Heralded as the most advanced rough-terrain robot on Earth, BigDog can walk, run, climb, and carry extremely heavy loads. BigDog has four legs that are articulated like an animal\u2019s, with compliant elements to absorb shock and recycle energy with each step. Its control system keeps it balanced, managing locomotion on a wide variety of terrains. It runs at 5 mph, climbs slopes up to 35 degrees, walks across rubble, climbs muddy hiking trails, walks in snow and water, and carries 400-pound loads.<\/p>\n
When Boston Dynamics first established the technology for the BigDog robot, they had to start testing it for further development and quality control. The machine itself is the size of a small mule, about three feet long, two and a half feet tall, and weighing 240 pounds. It\u2019s comprised of on-board computer controls, processing sensors, a gyroscope, and a stereovision system, among other things. The parts used to make the robot are very expensive, so testing was a rigorous process. They needed to ensure that BigDog was able to run, jump, climb, and move like an animal, while also carrying heavy loads over rough terrain. In order to do that, they needed to run tests in their facility. Testing consisted of creating an environment that resembled the difficult terrain BigDog would have to navigate and measuring its ability to function effectively while being kicked, hit, and knocked over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-1536","case_study","type-case_study","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n