It's Time for Your Robot Overlord Update

One of my favorite books of recent is "How to Survive a Robot Uprising" [I have slipped this into previous posts...]. However, fact as fiction becoming fact again has led to present time which means the time has come for a little update on what is going on in the world of robots that may one day take over the world and make us their fodder for play!

Let's start with Dexter, the giant Space Robot being installed outside the International Space Station. Described as Monstrous by Wired magazine - Dexter is very likely atthis moment directly over your house! The Decepticons ain't looking too fictional and playful now - are they!

Next up is Boston Dynamics Big Dog! No longer the domain of cheap summer beachwear - this Big Dog is the "Most Advanced Quadruped Robot on Earth" and can haul more than 350 pounds of gear through some pretty harsh terrain. Check out the youtube video and be amazed. I especially like it when one of the technicians t-bones him (it) into an ice patch. The thing may stumble around like a drunken moose, but what if that moose were headless and made of wires and computer chips?

Finally we have another items from the ISS mixed with Star Wars. The Personal Satellite Assistant came out of an MIT Undergrad lab course - the story is that a few years ago, MIT engineering Professor David Miller showed the movie Star Wars to his students on their first day of class. There's a scene Miller is particularly fond of, the one where Luke Skywalker spars with a floating battle droid on the Millenium Falcon. Miller stood up and pointed: "I want you to build me some of those." and so ... they did.