Robotic Donkey Climbs 35 Degrees, Carries 300 Pounds

The video of this beast almost is scary.  A fully automated donkey that can’t be kicked over, walks in snow, scales hills and packs 300+ pounds of payload.

The donkey’s control system keeps it balanced, steers, navigates, and regulates energetics as conditions vary. Sensors for locomotion include joint position, joint force, ground contact, ground load, a laser gyroscope, and a stereo vision system.

Other sensors focus on the internal state of BigDog, monitoring the hydraulic pressure, oil temperature, engine temperature, rpm, battery charge and others.

Can you imagine 1,000 of these working in a military convoy?