Unsettling Boston Dynamics Robot Fights off Man With Hockey Stick to Open the Door
Last week the world got creeped out by the Boston Dynamics SpotMini robot-dog opening a door all by itself. But Boston Dynamics want to show that it isn’t such a big deal after all so have created another video showing the robot dog's door opening attempts being hampered by a guy with a hockey stick and a pair of safety glasses.
To be fair, the flimsily armed scientist is able to deter the SpotMini pretty easily. The world can release a collective sigh of release that we weren’t about to be inundated with the door opening robot killers. Boston Dynamics go to lengths to describe that the video is a snapshot of a lab scenario to test the robot's responses to tolerate disturbances.
They describe that off camera the robot's controller gives the robot-dog the ‘GO’ command - to open the door - before it is thwarted by the hockey stick welding assistants. “Controllers provide locomotion, balance and adjust behavior when progress gets off track. The ability to tolerate and respond to disturbances like these improves successful operation of the robot," says the video's description.
The scientists over at Boston Dynamics are also very keen to point out that the test in no way ‘hurts’ the robot. “Note: This testing does not irritate or harm the robot,” the text goes on. Even with this note, this video is sure to end up in another showreel of all the times Boston Dynamics have pushed their robots over with a stick.