The company may have another robotic sensation: PETMAN, a two-legged, 180-pound machine nearly six feet tall. Boston Dynamics, which has created a slew of robots for the military over the years, is expected today to publicly unveil the first video of the nearly fully developed PETMAN, power-walking on a treadmill in the company’s labs.
PETMAN, an acronym for Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin, does not look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, who played the Terminator killing machine in the first of a series of movies. For one thing, PETMAN still lacks a head, and it can’t say “Hasta la vista, baby.’’
But it can walk like a person, and it’s set for possible delivery next year to the military, which plans to use it for testing clothing and headgear intended to protect soldiers from chemical warfare agents.
Over the past decade, the military has been investing heavily in robotic aircraft and other devices, some of which have been deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Unmanned Predator aircraft, which can monitor and fire at ground targets, are perhaps the best known.
Some military analysts question the Pentagon’s long-term, multimillion-dollar investments in robotic products, but it appears PETMAN and other products are accelerating the progress in robotic technology.
“We’re absolutely turning a corner in robotics,’’ said Marc Raibert, president of 19-year-old Boston Dynamics.
There is something of a robotics sector in Massachusetts, including Boston Dynamics and iRobot Corp. in Bedford. It, too, has produced robots for the military, such as its surveillance and bomb-detection PackBot, as well as robotic consumer products that clean floors and gutters.
Chris Anderson, president of the industry group Massachusetts High Technology Council, said companies like Boston Dynamics are important to the state’s economy. “It’s extremely significant to the innovation ecosystem here,’’ he said.
Boston Dynamics, which was founded by engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has worked for years on products such as LittleDog and BigDog carrying robots, both funded by the military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
