Petman

A complex humanoid bipedal robot climbs up on a concrete block. A harness holds it up. All of its wires, actuators and sensors are exposed.
Petman is powered by hydraulic actuators. Photo: Boston Dynamics

Petman is a full-size humanoid that can walk, squat, and do push-ups. It was developed to test chemical-resistant military gear and is in no way intended to become a robotic super soldier of the future.

Creator

Boston Dynamics

Year
2009
Country
United States 🇺🇸
Categories
Features
Petman walks, does squats and push-ups. Video: Boston Dynamics

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Appearance

Neutral

Did you know?

Petman can alter its body temperature and humidity, and even sweat on demand.

Five photos show the robot held up by a harness as it shows off physical movements including a wide split, a bow and donkey-kicking its feet.
Petman's limbs have a range of motion similar to a human's. Photo: Boston Dynamics

History

Petman was designed by a team led by Marc Raibert at Boston Dynamics. Development started in 2008 with a US $26.3 million U.S. Army program. In 2009, the company, based in Waltham, Mass., first demonstrated Petman's legs by putting them to walk on a treadmill. In 2011, the company showed that the robot legs could run at up to 7 kilometers per hour (about 4.4 miles per hour) and announced it had completed a prototype of the body. Later that year, it unveiled a complete Petman that could walk, squat, kneel, and even do push-ups. The Army funded the development of Petman, short for Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin, to use the robot to test chemical suits and other protective gear used by troops.

Specs

Overview

Anthropomorphic design. Equipped with custom hydraulic actuators.

Status

Inactive

Year

2009

Website
Height
177.8 cm
Weight
79.4 kg
Speed
6.44 km/h
Actuators

Hydraulic actuators

Degrees of Freedom (DoF)
29
Compute

Custom PC

Software

Custom software

Power

Tethered