Watch about a minute into it when someone kicks at this thing and it regains it’s balance. I wonder if all of this is frankly just a really bad idea.

First cited I think by Charlie Sorrel at Wired.

Creepy Dog Robot Planned for the US Military
By Charlie Sorrel EmailJuly 16, 2007 | 7:27:12 AMCategories: Defense, Innovations

It’s been a long time coming, but the BigDog, a robotic pack mule, has just won $10 million in Pentagon funding. The robot, covered way back in 2004 by Danger Room’s Noah Shachtman, is designed to carry equipment for soldiers. The petrol-engined quadruped will supposedly run and jump with its load, negotiating obstacles up to a meter (3.3 feet) high and two meters wide. As you can see from the video, the BigDog is pretty noisy, but worse than that, the naturalistic movement really creeps me out. It’s like an AT-AT crossed with a rickshaw.

B.A.R. Rating of 4 out of 5