PETMAN Robot Climbs Stairs In New VIDEO From DARPA, Boston Dynamics

In the event of a zombie apocalypse, popular lore suggests building a moat to protect yourself—in the case of a robot rebellion, climbing a flight of stairs was once thought to do the trick.

Not anymore.

PETMAN, a humanoid robot built in 2011 for the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), has been modified to climb stairs, as shown in the unsettling video above.

This is only the latest feat for PETMAN, which has already mastered walking. The robot's confident swagger has been the butt of jokes, but it wasn't designed to look like a human on the battlefield. PETMAN's primary purpose is testing chemical protection clothing, according to creator Boston Dynamics' website, and it can "simulate human physiology within the protective suit by controlling temperature, humidity and sweating when necessary."

PETMAN aside, Boston Dynamics may be best known for BigDog, the four-legged pack robot that can walk on ice and keep its balance after getting kicked. PETMAN shows some of the same ability to right itself in the video above—and if that's not enough, it can also do push-ups.

See more of its abilities in the video above or take a look at the slideshow below for more videos of the most uncanny humanoid robots.

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• Meet Jules, the newest and most realistic humanoid robot yet from David Hanson and the team at Hanson Robotics.

• A robot that looks just like its creator (www.newscientist.com).

• Engineers at Kagawa University in Japan are developing a talking robotic version of the human mouth: To enable the robot's speaking abilities, engineers at Japan's Kagawa University used an air pump, artificial vocal chords, a resonance tube, a nasal cavity, and a microphone attached to a sound analyzer as substitutes for human vocal organs.

• ACTROID-F in AIST Open Lab 2010.

• Robot modeled after Albert Einstein. Einstein mimics the facial expressions he detects in others. Smile at him, and he'll smile back.

• Cybernetic human dance demo in DCEXPO, 2010.

• Humanoid face created by Hanson Robotics (www.hansonrobotics.com). Robotics scientists at Hanson previously created animatronic puppets for Disney studios.

• Animatronic baby mechanism for anonymous TV series. Built by Chris Clarke for CNFX Workshop.

• Taiwanese Kissing Robots (NTUST Robot) were exhibited in AutoRob2009 in Gwangju, Korea. They were developed by Prof. Chyi-Yeu Lin's research team in National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.

• Robot girl with silicone skin.

Comments

[Lonnie DeVorak]

06:27 PM on 06/04/2012

Looks like a robot from the Terminator.
What will happen to the world when the robots become "self aware"?

[rexy640421]

07:11 AM on 05/08/2012

TOONAMI: Advanced Robotics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwO9PSe-uG4

=D

Awwwwwww yusss

[werewolf90210]

03:59 PM on 05/03/2012

Nothing short of amazing. However, as many other posters have pointed out, no one will have this technology except the military, which is far as I am concerned, not the best idea. This future versions of this thing will have many applications, not the least of which is fight a war with real humans one day, and win.

[DMW1]

05:42 AM on 04/19/2012

Freaky. Might be used primarily for testing chemical weapons now, but if anyone truly believes that's the military's ultimate goal with this techonology, they're naive.

[trueliberaltruth]

06:17 AM on 04/17/2012

2nd Amendment does not look so bad after all right guys.

[Tazirai]

11:19 PM on 04/16/2012

Proto Cylon? Sheesh or Proto Geth...

[Craig Koebelin]

10:23 PM on 04/16/2012

Spooky!

[Christian Aragon]

07:23 PM on 04/16/2012

Anyone ever see the movie "Saturn 3"???

[mackjaz]

06:24 PM on 04/16/2012

At least he's using the handrail. Most robots charge up and down the stairs in my facility without a care in the world. I hear them, so I know.

[Quasimoto]

04:46 PM on 04/16/2012

He walks like he just peed himself, and he'd do better by just going over to the elevator and taking that instead of the stairs. Plus, he really sucks at doing push-ups. If you ever feel threatened by this robot, tell him to "get down and give me twenty!', and then just walk away. He'll be there all day. All things considered, Sarah Connors has nothing to worry about.

[dennishastings]

04:45 PM on 04/16/2012

Great. An army of these things... controlled by rogue military operatives, supported by black triangular craft propelled by electrostatic energy and armed with microwave crowd control devices... all of which are real. A military force comprised completely of drones. Now that is a great future, isn't it?

[rexy640421]

07:14 AM on 05/08/2012

I dont really see terrorists building Iron Men in caves from scrap.

[itruth]

10:59 PM on 05/20/2012

MAYBE NOT YET GIVE EM A FEW MORE YEARS

[Robert SF]

01:40 PM on 04/16/2012

It's too bad that these technological advances trigger the usual round of silly Skynet jokes. The real danger to us isn't that robots will become sentient and take over. The real danger that technological advances pose for us -- and it's not just in robotics but in general automation -- is that it eliminates jobs while our society does nothing to prepare for this.

[dennishastings]

04:46 PM on 04/16/2012

I agree.

[mackjaz]

06:23 PM on 04/16/2012

The fear is that they won't be as smart as us, but that they will meet us halfway... and we've already started in that direction.

[TisKishnsing]

01:31 PM on 04/16/2012

interesting robots. buh i need a robot to do my chores. smiling, talking n kissing robots are useless 4 me.

[HatInTheCat]

12:06 AM on 04/17/2012

That just reminded me of an old movie "Cherry 2000", with ... lets call them companion robots...
Oh, and the Jude Law ho-bot in Ai

[rexy640421]

07:15 AM on 05/08/2012

Everyone wants gynoids.

Everyone.

[Steele361]

01:30 PM on 04/16/2012

Give him a machinegun and send him to replace a soldier, bring the troops home and leave the drones and robots to do the fighting. Thanks and have a good day.

[rpeterson2205]

01:24 PM on 04/16/2012

skeptical on how much it was actually pulled up the stairs.