DARPA

Monday Kickstart: Watch robots fall down! Laugh while you can until the Terminator shows up

DARPA, or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is an American agency responsible for some of the weirdest (and coolest) technology headlines you’ll likely ever see. From cloaking devices to wearable jetpacks to thought-reading devices, DARPA is who the US Department of Defense turns to when they want sci-fi weapons.

The agency is also the host of one of the most famous robotics challenges in the world: The DARPA Robotics Challenge. With millions of dollars in prize money available to teams from around the world, you would expect that Japan and South Korea would have some entrants — and you’d be right!

What you might not expect to see what is arguably the funniest “robots falling down” video on the Internet… Click below to laugh at those silly robots. It may be your last chance before SkyNet awakens!

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Awesome Japanese rescue robot probably won’t kill you

DARPA, the American agency commonly known for its hilarious supervillain-esque laser projects and weaponized dolphins, took time out of its wacky military inventions schedule to hold its Robotics Competition in Miami, Florida, where a humanoid robot from Japanese company Schaft, Inc. took top prize.

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US Military’s Newest Robot Gets Upgrade… In Cuteness!

Robotic Firm Boston Dynamic working with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) made a splash with a demonstration video of a highly functioning quadrupedal robot called LS3 (Legged Squad Support System).

When many internet fiends in Japan laid eyes on it they couldn’t help but think of Homo, a parody of girls into homoerotic art (fujoshi). It was developed on Twitter from ASCII art (┌(┌^o^)┐ホモォ). Since then it has become something of a subculture phenomenon spawning various merchandise.

A few months later, has the US military improved LS3 enough to quell the giggling of otaku everywhere? Let’s see.

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