A shoebox-sized military robot has been revealed which can jump over walls 25ft (7.5m) high.The Precision Urban Hopper -- which looks like it could just as easily be this year's must-have Christmas toy -- has been funded by DARPA, the US military's research arm.
It is essentially a GPS-guided remote control car, but is fitted with a piston leg which can accurately propel it onto, or over, obstacles of more than 25 feet tall.
Makers say the four-wheeled surveillance bot can overcome as many as 30 obstacles 40-60 times it's own size, and automatically adjusts controls for hop height depending whether it is jumping from concrete, asphalt or sand.
The researchers at Sandia said they considered making the bot hover rather than hop, but found that hopping is five times more efficient when traversing obstacles less than 10 meters -- even if it doesn't look quite as cool.
In addition to providing military assistance when it is deployed in late 2010, the hopping robot could be rolled out for use in law enforcement and homeland security, generally anywhere that wall jumping may be required. Keep reading to see video of the hopper in action.
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Wednesday 16 September
By brian the snail
i think the 25 feet is a bit ambitous looking at that vid id suggest more like 12 would be its max, great way to make a living squandering the tax payers money and id like to see the R&D costs for that?
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Saturday 17 October
By Addy
They're not going to make this bot jump 25 feet over a 12 foot fence, that'd just waste battery power and risk damaging the bot.
Wednesday 16 September
By Al Bradley
I want one. I'll be able to jump the neighbours fence and catch her sunbathing topless!!!
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Wednesday 16 September
By Simon Crisp
This is the sort of practical application I wholeheartedly approve of.
Wednesday 16 September
By Al Bradley
Cheers Simon. Glad to know that I'm not the only perv on the block.
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Wednesday 16 September
By Loaded
Someone has been nicking ideas from Robot Wars again ;-) I agree, it is actually a good idea, I believe it could help save soldiers lives in certain situations. Of course the R&D will be high, but think of this, in a couple of years a Chinese company will ship them with Webcams and WIFI operation and we will all be able to play with them in our back yards. I also think that 25 feet seems high, as the fence is maybe 9 feet, however, this technology might 'sense' the height in order to not use energy unnecessarily, as these types of pistons use a lot of energy.
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Thursday 17 September
By BV
It could also seriously blow your cover if someone sees it on the other side. It does look cool and I'm sure there will be plenty of applications for it.
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Thursday 17 September
By jay
Yes, it just clears the obstacle... but in the article it also says that it can calculate how high it needs to jump, I highly doubt that is the max it can jump.
Thursday 17 September
By RKR
hahahaaaaa that is well swish (: they should soooooo be sold in shops then everyone can get one and then we can race them around =D!!!
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Thursday 17 September
By Phil E. Drifter
Apparently you people don't even rtfa, it ALREADY has a cam attached to it: "Makers say the four-wheeled surveillance bot..." the controller sees the wall, estimates the height, and tells it to 'jump 12 feet' or 'jump 15 feet.'
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Tuesday 29 September
By ian
well if thats the case and it looks at the hieght of the fence,determinating the hieght, then why in this video has it over estimated the size of the wall and jumped a futhur 2 t 3 feet above its designated hight
Thursday 17 September
By Ryuzaki
That was AWESOME!!! I watched it several times in a row and loled every time!!!
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Wednesday 23 September
By dnnngels
ermmm I don't think its THAT funny! It certainly has potential though.
Tuesday 29 September
By Robert Morley
Just think of the possibilities when you attach explosives to this device!
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Tuesday 29 September
By fred
Rather than putting it under a defenceless animal we could put it under you and launch you 25ft..
Good way to give stupid people ideas pal. Theres enough cruelty in this world without you giving stupid people ideas to add to it!
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Thursday 01 October
By clinton
I find it all quite scary !
We are getting closer to world order by the controllers of the robots!
Sounds crazy?
Think of this for a concept-
Military robots deployed that can run, climb, fly, so quickly that it is absolutely impossible to escape!!
*they can jump and run over buildings like a spider at incredible speed
*cross water as fast a speed boat and go underwater as fast
* fly, land at will
* Aim and fire at multiple targets at once
* Multi task quicker than you can blink!!
A small robot army would be able to destroy us or rule us!!
There may be trouble ahead lol
Terminators lol
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Sunday 04 October
By Guy B
So, give it a turbo, a pair of one size fits all bolt on boots, you now have the ideal way to jump out of the prison yard! burning rubber into the sunset! keep it locked up for every ones sake.
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Wednesday 21 October
By Andrew
I think this is a great thing for urban combat. While ya, someone may see one of these things hop over a wall or fence, it will quickly be out of sight under a car or debris whereas a human jumping over the same wall will be slower and unable to hide as effectively. With this thing fitted with infrared and normal camera equipment, a squad of soldiers or police officers can use it to accurately scout out targets and won't be caught unawares, lowering the risk and lessening loss of life to ambushes.
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Friday 23 October
By Uncle B
America's militarists build everything from "Star Wars" marvels to tinker toys like this! Squandering good technology, wasting the cream off the top of the economy, building "Hummers" designed to crush a WWII style enemy, and losing hands down to turban toting scavengers in rags in Afghanistan, all the while, China declares economic war on the U.S.A., steals its manufactury, cleans out the Ohio valley, making it a rust belt mockery, and dessimates the dollar, manipulating greedy Yankee Doodle traders into cutting their own countries throat in the greatest act of treason in American history, the Wall Street Swindle! China now intends to oust the Yankee dollar from international trade, and has successfully done so and with impunity from these militarist's devices, to date! Meanwhile, in this Nuclear age, in the real world, in the 21st Century, our Military sucks down far too much of our money in "secret" efforts to win hypothetical WWII based wars that will never come to fruition! Why would anybody in their right minds, especially China or the greater Asian fact of life, bother playing sand-lot war games with the Americans on American terms, with weapons they designed, when deathless, costless, financial manipulations of American greed and avarice can bring Americans into total submission! China and the OPEC countries own and operate Washington D.C. partnered with the real Uber-Capitalists on the Beijing, Shanghai, Hang Seng stock markets! Safe in Chinese "Yuan" while the dollar is decimated, by them, in America! The corporatist shareholder's vote, and lobbiests run America, not the peon's vote - it is virtually powerless pacifier to the masses, a formality of the corporate propagandist, and proffered to the American proletariat in the propagandized position as to have some relevance! It does not! Uncle Tom Obama will wear a Yamaca, do the Saber Dance, kiss Wall Street's ass, and support big business with the spoils stolen from the peoples, and in general kiss big money's ass or go down as a total failure in history! They will destroy him! The immense American Military will be supported at all costs to the people, and will continue to do so, to the bitter end! Much like the mighty U.S.S.R. we will enter the Abyss, and as its opening closes over us, songs of praise for our system will be heard echoing from the depths! Good night America!
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Friday 06 November
By Waste of taxpayer money
why not just throw it over the fence?
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