Boston Dynamics is finally showing progress on their PETMAN humanoid robot.  The robot is being built to test military suits to protect soldiers against chemical warfare.  As you can see in the video they’ve just posted, PETMAN dynamically balances similar to BigDog – even when pushed, and power-walks at 3.2mph (that’s 5.14kph – just 1km shy of ASIMO’s running gait!).  It also makes virtually no noise compared to BigDog’s notoriously loud buzzing.  It’ll be very interesting to see how this project develops as it could potentially leapfrog years of Japanese humanoid robot development.

Video (Mirror):

[source: Boston Dynamics]