Meet Atlas, the Next Best (Worst?) Thing to a Real Terminator

And in this corner, weighing in at 6 foot 2, 330 pounds, it’s…”a high mobility, humanoid robot designed to negotiate outdoor, rough terrain. Atlas can walk bipedally leaving the upper limbs free to lift, carry, and manipulate the environment. In extremely challenging terrain, Atlas is strong and coordinated enough to climb using hands and feet, to pick its way through congested spaces.”

It also glows freakin’ blue, because the concept of a military use humanoid robot wasn’t sufficiently Decepticon-like on its own. Atlas is allegedly designed for rescue purposes in hazardous environments, but so far has not been equipped to say “Come vit me if you want to liff!” However, for the Ayn Rand fans out there, you may be delighted to know that articulated shoulders will allow Atlas to shrug.

Still, for now the Atlas has one major weakness that would hinder it in a battle scenario – it’s powered through a flexible tether cord from an external supply. Probably only a matter of time before they fit the battery in a rucksack, but for now, it would have to seriously watch its back rather than quipping that it’ll be back.

We’re probably totally safe anyway, because as Arnold himself noted, the real Termninator is Michael Dukakis.

Video of Atlas in concept and motion after the jump.

h/t James.k.Polk and Gallen_Dugall, the latter of whom added song lyrics:

terminator,
meet the terminator,
he’s a modern stone cold killing ma-chine,
from the – minds of DARPA,
he’s a page right out of world war three