Metalhead's dogs are creeper than Boston Dynamics

Last week's The Last Leg tv show referenced a meme of a robot dog opening a door.

To me, the striking thing about the sequence wasn't its creepiness, but it was how similar the robot looked to the ones in the Metalhead episode of Black Mirror. maybe if I'd seen this first I would have thought it creepier, but somehow the Charlie Brooker ones win.

Ironically, the main robot in the Metalhead story was three-legged, something which The Last Leg didn't mention. I wonder if there's a whole licensing/copying thing lurking in the background?

The manufacturers of the real SpotMini robot are Boston Dynamics, and they have a whole slew of others, right the way up to a RoboCop sized device, although I don't think they have been fitted with guns (yet).

The original BigDog model was developed for the US Army/DARPA as a pack mule to traverse difficult terrain. Although it could carry 150lbs, it needed a 2 stroke petrol engine to operate and was deemed unsuitable for service.

Boston Dynamics has an interesting history, including spending part of its life owned by Alphabet/Google. It has made a whole array of robotic prototypes, including an earlier dog that famously was almost impossible to kick over.

The company was sold on in 2017, to the cuddly-named Japanese Softbank.

Some of the original robots have since been -er- canned, and the latest consumer variant to is nothing to be sneezed at.

Although, I can't help thinking its more like a mannequin holding an iPad. But maybe the friendly looking one is there as a placeholder whilst they get the 6 foot tall Atlas series ready. And yes, that's a real picture of the prototype. I have a feeling it will take more than the 80 Watts continuous that the average human requires to operate.