Video of very impressive DARPA-funded quadruped robot

In light of our continuing interest in the ways in which nanotechnology will interact with robotics and other emerging technologies, here is an update from IEEE Spectrum on the Boston Dynamics robot project. The earlier version called BigDog was cited here a few years ago, and was impressive enough. The update is a substantially improved version called AlphaDog. “Boston Dynamics’ AlphaDog Quadruped Robot Prototype on Video“. The article describes the improvements and states that DARPA and the US Marines will begin to test AlphaDog sometime in 2012. I found it particularly amazing to watched the failed efforts of two burly men to topple AlphaDog.