In an unspecified presentation recently, Boston Dynamics presented the various robots they had in their arsenal. Among the familiar robots like the robotic dog SpotMini, was something new to us. A robotic creation that we have never seen before. This never-been-seen robot, named Handle, was showed in an apparent ‘leaked’ video which appears to be a video recording of the said presentation (an internal thing, I guess?). We investigated a little, hitting up both Boston Dynamics’ website and YouTube channel, but we find no information on this new robot.
It appears to us, for reasons unknown to us, the robotic development company has no wish for us to know. At least, not now. Perhaps, it is because the world isn’t ready for this awesome yet unsettling robot? I don’t know. Anyways, the Handle was so named because, well, it is designed to handle things – eventually. Though from the video, you can clearly see it isn’t equipped to handle anything yet. However, it was its mobility that has us in awe.
Instead of the usual quadruped or biped robots that move by the virtue of articulated limbs, Handle moves with a pair of wheels, not feet, and that’s what make it really unsettling. In other words, Handle is like a blasphemous lovechild of a Segway and a biped robot which grants it with the ability to keep its balance like a Segway, enables it to carry heavier load and the freedom to traverse across multiple types of terrain effortlessly and even leaping over obstacles.
Seriously, you guys should see it in action and if you do (watch it), you probably would be wishing that they won’t be loading it up with advanced self-learning artificial intelligence. Because if they do, we’d say we are all doomed. Just look at its agility. I don’t even want to begin to imagine the what if scenario if this thing come chasing after us.
Image: screengrab from YouTube video.
via Digital Trends
