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Our Mothers Were Right: It's a Dog Eat Robodog World Out There

Boston Dynamics, a company that seems hell bent on making the prophecy in the Terminator series come true, currently has three main types of robots that's working on.
Big dog vs. Fox Terrier 1 photo
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube
The first is Atlas, the humanoid version that usually gets hit with sticks and so has become so anti-social that has to be taken out for a walk in a forest. The second one is Big Dog, which is a four-legged robot that has already trained with the US Marines. Finally, there's Little Dog, the youngest of the family, also a four-legged machine that's the most careless of the bunch as it still spends most of its time playing.

If we made it sound as if Little Dog is any less scary than the other two, then we'd like to apologize and assure you that you still wouldn't want to run across it in a dark alley at night. The way it moves, the way it looks, the fact it's got no head... No, just no.

That same lack of certain body parts that robots don't need exhibited by Big Dog is probably what made this encounter with a Fox Terrier that extra noisy. Since dogs rely heavily on body language to communicate, the absence of a head might have put the flesh and bones Fido at a disadvantage.

Even worse, Big Dog doesn't have a tail either, so despite the fact it can take the "play with me pose" (lowering the front of its body and raising its butt), the Terrier was having none of it.

The fact it didn't smell like any other dog it has ever met might have also thrown the Terrier into a barking frenzy (not that it usually takes much to do that with this breed). In the end, the Big Dog operator had to give up and put the robodog in sleep mode, and all the better since the neighbors were probably one step away from calling the police for all the hubbub.

Unless somewhere in a closely guarded facility some secret group has just finished building the T-800, Boston Dynamics is leading the way in the field of robotics, and this video - just like all the others they have released - can show you why that is. This one, however, has the added bonus of featuring a small dog as well.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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