Top 10: Robots doing stuff that scares the &$#! out of me

Robotics Science

In truth, I regard the “robot uprising” meme with about the same level of seriousness as the “zombie apocalypse” meme. I suppose robots becoming sentient, independent, organized, and uncontrollably violent is at least plausible, but on the scale of plausible apocalypses, “robot revolution” is nowhere near the top of the list. More likely, in 100 years, robots will be tending to us like primates in a zoo.

So, in the spirit of fun, here’s a collection of videos showing the mad, mad foolishness that roboticists have been up to equipping our future overlords with their tools of power. Or, in a more realistic vein: Look at all the amazing stuff robots can do these days!

#10

Child-stealing swarm-bots

#9

Tentacle-bot

#8

High speed flexpicker sorting-bot

#7

Tree-climbing snake-bot

#6

2-ton jackhammer-wielding demolition-bot

#5

Ultra-high-speed actuator hand-bot

#4

Crazy accurate fast flying heli-bots

#3

“Big dog” autonomous quadruped tracker-bot

#2

Nuke guarding sentry-bot

#1

Uncanniest of the uncanny baby-bots

I’m sure I’ve missed some good ones. Let me know, below!

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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