Watch a Robot Karate Master Crane Kick Humankind Into Oblivion
Boston Dynamics, the Google-owned robotics company that brought us sprinting death trap WildCat, now brings us “Ian,’’ a karate-fighting, self-balancing hunk of metal.
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The 6-foot-2, 150-kilogram robot is the result of a collaboration between Waltham-based Boston Dynamics and the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, which provided the balance algorithm.
In the video, Ian mimics the crane kick from The Karate Kid, the devastating fighting technique Ralph Macchio used as a knockout in the 1984 film. Ian moves its parts around while standing on three concrete blocks, maintaining balance with internal sensors (and a cord attached to its head).
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That kick looks like it would be more painful from Ian’s metallic body than from Macchio’s bony frame, but Ian is neither the first nor the scariest of Boston Dynamics’s creations. Last summer, an earlier version of Ian named “ATLAS’’ showed off some of its athletic feats, including balancing after being by a weight and walking on a treadmill in a human-like way.
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Less than a month ago, ATLAS walked up and down stair-like cement blocks, smoothly avoiding a stubbed lug nut.
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The increasingly humanoid ATLAS is a bit frightening-looking, although it’s still got a ways to go before launching a Terminator-like attack on mankind. The same can’t be said for Boston Dynamics’s other creations, including BigDog, which learned to throw cement blocks at nearby enemies.
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Then there’s WildCat, which reached 16 miles per hour in a robotic all-out sprint.
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What’s more worrying for the future of humanity: robot animals or robot humans? Why not both?
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