As it turns out, this rather serious Italian robot isn’t shaped like a supercar or a Vespa. It’s a shiny silver quadruped that can kick you in the shin if you make any pasta or romance jokes.

Boston Dynamics Big Dog robot has been around for several years, and robotics enthusiasts, dorky website makers, DARPA, and those who dig a good mechanical creep-out have been waiting and longing to see the upgrade.

We WANT to see human traits in other entities. Androids aren’t going to reach that point where they’re just human enough to be creepy, yet not quite human enough to accept – they’re going to leap past it.

If ASIMO doesn’t keep improving, becoming more adaptive and autonomous, I see many late nights with a little white robot waking from a terrible nightmare screaming: “Help, Help! PETMAN is coming to get me!

Another help-bot (instead of kill bot, or Big Dog) in the always-expanding military robotics industry. [VIA THE ECONOMIST]