Domo arigato...

On his blog, Peter David mentioned going to Animal Kingdom at Disneyland with his daughter, and seeing “an audioanimatronic velociraptor named 'Lucky' who actually free-range walks down the streets of the AK's Dinosaur section.” I hunted down some images and video clips, and while “velociraptor” may be a bit generous, this robot does actually walk around on its own (radio controlled by puppeteer). This site has a video clip, and you can find more if you click on the image below and scroll midway down the page.


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As I was searching around for video of Lucky, I came across “Troody,” a robotic version of a Troodon dinosaur developed by M.I.T.’s Artificial Intelligence Lab, in the Leg Lab section. This site has an older video of the little robot walking slowly, and being controlled through a cord.



The robot has apparently progressed to a faster walking speed and been made cordless since that video, but the Leg Lab’s Troody site isn’t working, so I can’t find recent footage. I’m sure we’ll get a better look once the robots have taken over and these little bastards are in charge of exterminating us.
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While I found the walking dino-bird robot cool, this humanoid robot just creeps me out.



He doesn't look like much, but follow this link to see videos of him in action. The walking video isn’t so bad, but for some reason the video of it getting up from lying prone on the ground gives me the willies. Those scientists are crazy; knocking robots to the ground is our only weapon against them. If you teach them to get up we’re screwed!