Looks like BigDog finally has a robotic counterpart to take him out for a walk. Actually, Boston Dynamics's PETMAN has been under development for a while now, but this is our first opportunity to see him decked out in full battle gear.

You remember Cheetah, don't you? Back in March, DARPA released video of the robotic quadruped galloping at speeds of up to 18 miles per hour. At the time, 18 mph was a new record, outstripping the previous one by just shy of five miles per hour.

Say hello to Sand Flea — the latest, greatest incarnation in Boston Dynamics' line of military-funded jumping-bots.

Chances are you're familiar with Boston Dynamics' Big Dog or its larger cousin Alpha Dog. Now, the roboticists at BD have constructed PETMAN, a six-foot-tall, 180-pound, headless humanoid robot whose potential lies in chemical weapons testing. Notes The Boston Globe:

The command "Jump to it, soldier" will have an extra meaning to it next year, when the US army takes delivery of an all-new, all-hopping robot to assist in "intelligence gathering," and maybe more.