Robot Mule

Pretty cool. [Link]

It looks like something out of a James Thurber illustration, with its headless body and backward-dog legs, but the Big Dog is real and autonomous. This video, by the Big Dog development team at Boston Dynamics, shows just how lifelike the bot is. It can carry over 300 pounds, and its engines make an alien whining noise. It can also, apparently, recover its balance after being kicked by its owner, in a scene that that is disturbing on a number of levels.

We'll be seeing these things deployed in the next few years.