A robot dog managed to pull a whole airplane by itself, so it’s time we treat them nicely

All we can say after watching this unbelievable video is that… y’all better beg for forgiveness after kicking the hell out of robot dogs. 

 

While Boston Dynamics have been busy teaching their quadruped companions to open doors, researchers at Italy’s Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (ITT) have been busy ramping up the strength levels of their own robot dog. Called the HyQReal, the Italian machine is a beefy boy compared to its American cousin the SpotMini — the former weighing in at 130 kilograms to the latter’s 30 kilograms. 

Sure, a pack of SpotMini bots managed to pull a truck down a street last month, but it only took one HyQReal to tug an entire three-ton (3000 kilogram) passenger airplane forward. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLsNs1ZS_TI[/embed]

Suddenly, the video compilations of hydraulic robots getting abused don’t seem to be that funny after all. Suddenly, Black Mirror’s "Metalhead" episode seems more like prophecy than fantasy. 

"Pulling a plane allowed us to demonstrate the robot's strength, power-autonomy and the optimised design," said IIT's Dynamic Legged Systems lab project leader Claudio Semini in a statement. 

"We wanted to achieve something that has never been done before, and we succeeded last week." 

But why the need for such Herculean robots? It’s not for ripping its former human masters apart four-horses style in the eventual robocalypse, that’s for sure. ITT wanted to show their robot’s feasibility in assisting humans with heavy-duty tasks during rescue operations post-disaster, like looking for survivors in inaccessible places and unsafe structures for example. 

To help make HyQReal even more durable, it sports an aluminium roll cage and a skin made from a combination of Kevlar, glass, and plastic. So, uh, I guess it’s time we start treating ‘em a little better. 

ilyas@asiaone.com