Two videos give a unique look at the robots of Boston Dynamics including a new bipedal two-wheeled, yes legs and wheels, robot that has been described as something from a "nightmare".
Update: Official Boston Dynamics Video of the new robot.
Sometimes the news is reported well enough elsewhere and we have little to add other than to bring it to your attention.
No Comment is a format where we present original source information, lightly edited, so that you can decide if you want to follow it up.
Update: Boston Dynamics Has released an official video of Handle
Handle is a research robot that stands 6.5 ft tall, travels at 9 mph and jumps 4 feet vertically. It uses electric power to operate both electric and hydraulic actuators, with a range of about 15 miles on one battery charge. Handle uses many of the same dynamics, balance and mobile manipulation principles found in the quadruped and biped robots we build, but with only about 10 actuated joints, it is significantly less complex. Wheels are efficient on flat surfaces while legs can go almost anywhere: by combining wheels and legs Handle can have the best of both worlds.
The new robot, star of the video, is named "Handle" because it is supposed to handle objects. Clearly this is a novel form of bipedalism because the wheels at the ends of the legs balance like a Segway.
The footage isn't high quality as it was shot by a member of the audience in a lecture/presentation - but it is very worth watching.
If you are only interested in seeing "Handle" in action then, rather than the full 5-minute version, you might prefer this extract which has been edited to show just the lecture screen. Make sure you watch to the point about 53 seconds in, where the robot jumps an obstacle:
The original video can be seen below. In it Handle makes its entrance at about 3:40 minutes. Although it isn't as clear, there are lots of additional things to see:
This second video is a 360 interactive view of the Boston Dynamic facility both inside and outside. Make sure that you pan around otherwise you will miss a lot that is going on. The video opens with Atlas going for a walk with his "dog":
I think the humans in the video probably are real humans and not androids.
Linkerd has announced a new version of its service mesh. It adds three major new features: egress traffic visibility and control; per-service rate limiting; and federated services.
Not really random. Not even pseudo random, more stuff that caught my attention and that I, for one, would like to be given. And, yes, if I'm not given them, I'd probably buy some for myself.
