Eerie, Humanlike Petman Robot Walks, Dances and Tests Clothing (Video)

Robots can do some amazing things. They can venture into dangerous locations, they can speed up industry, they can test vehicles for safety and now, apparently, they can dance. Boston Dynamics has created a life-like anthropomorphic robot that can walk, dance and move like a person.

The robot, named Petman, is now being used to test protective clothing in the lab. It's equipped with the latest hazardous materials suit or flak jacket; then, researchers watch as it walks, bends, crouches and jumps in the clothing.

So why do you need a robot to test clothing? The tests can include exposure to chemical warfare agents that include nerve gas. The machine allows researchers and the U.S. military to examine how effective the clothing is against these weapons.

Robots are used for a variety of applications in warfare, exploration and research. Recently, scientists created a robot that could potentially be used in Mars exploration missions due to the way that it can move over rough terrain. Other researchers have created robots to study the movements of biological organisms or assess environmental conditions.

Petman isn't just realistic in its movements, though. It actually produces heat and sweat and is equipped with temperature and chemical sensors in order to determine if a normal human would have passed out or died from the situations that the researchers simulate. It can balance itself and move freely, unlike previous suit testers that had a limited repertoire of motion.

In fact, Petman is scarily life-like. With suit and gas mask, it could pass for a human--albeit one that seems to have a heavy tread. The idea to create a robot that could walk like a human initially came in 2008 when Boston Dynamics announced the initiative to create Petman. At that time there were skeptics; many doubted that such realistic humanoid technology could be achieved.

In addition to having the robot test clothing and protective suits, though, the researchers have also made it dance. In order to test its range of movement, the scientists had Petman groove to "Stayin' Alive" when it was first created.

Want to see Petman being put through its paces? Check out the two videos below, originally appearing here and here.