Human ingenuity just built this crazy combat bot. A semi-autonomous robot that can run for 18 hours and survive deadly explosions? Totally cool, but after the machines take over… how are we going to stop it?
Wired’s Spencer Ackerman just posted this exclusive video of the 2000kg Acer (no relation) robot. It’s terrifying as hell. The Acer has a sophisticated “behaviour engine” that responds to multiple cues from the environment around it, and adapts to complete its mission.
The Acer is agile, fast, and furious: in the video above it takes a bomb blast and doesn’t even flinch. Acer was originally funded by Darpa to dig out buried explosives, which was great until the DoD’s bot budget ran out. The undeterred designer kept developing the project in hopes that the government would see the error of its ways. Ackerman is right to compare this thing to the Terminator. The whole story sounds like a classic sci-fi plot. Spurned mad scientist builds an indestructible smart-bot. The government will recognise his genius — or else. [Danger Room]