Boston Dynamics is Building AT-AT’s – Kind of (Though for trademark reasons they’re called something else)

Tim Bean

9/12/2012

It’s Called “AlphaDog”

I am a fan (more like geek) of the Star Wars films; more specifically I am a fan of the original trilogy launched in 1977 through 1983.  Like many fans, the prequels left me disappointed, and I thought did much to contradict many things in the originals, but that is just my opinion.

My favorite film in this sci-fi series is The Empire Strikes Back, which was released in 1980, which is again simply my opinion.  For those of you familiar with these movies and The Empire Strikes Back in particular, then you will no doubt remember the battle scene towards the being that takes place on the ice planet Hoth.  In that scene the audience was introduced to a new weapon of the Empire, the AT-AT (which stands for All Terrain – Armored Transport; I told you I was a little geeky about these movies).  It was this giant, four legged beast of war that slowly plodded across the ground leaving havoc in its wake.  I was still a kid back then, and thought that these things were pretty cool; even if they were tools of the evil Empire.  What I didn’t think though is that anything like them would ever exist in real life.  I may have been mistaken in that thought though.

A company called Boston Dynamics has been working on a four legged robot for a couple of years now, to serve alongside our military as a kind of robotic pack animal.  The current and newest iteration, called the AlphaDog, can carry up to 400 pounds and can travel 20 miles before needing a recharge.  While still a far cry from the AT-AT’s in The Empire Strikes Back, given the fact that something even this similar even exists, and is being considered for future deployment with our military, points towards the possibility, however unlikely, that one day, real, honest to God AT-AT’s could be marching into conflicts, and undoubtedly scaring the you know what out of those in their way.

If only someone were working on a fully functional X-Wing starfighter, to me that would be the coolest; but again that is just another opinion of mine.