Boston Dynamics Big Dog

Having done sufficient experiments in robotics, I know what a feat of achievement it is to build an electro-mechanical device that can navigate terrain like how real animals do. While staying in balance, running, walking, sliding, skiing and other bodily movements sound very trivial to humans and animals (because we can do this very subconsciously without much of an effort), achieving even a simple task like climbing a stair case is an enormous deal as far as robots are concerned. The processing power needed to take into account friction, center of gravity and other properties of the environment around us to successfully navigate a terrain is humongous.

What Boston dynamics has achieved with Big dog (the ugly black thing in the video) is nothing short of incredible. It is an amazing feeling to see achievements like this that I can associate so much with.