Anyone who has watched Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1984 “The Terminator” is inspired to meet or own a robot like it at some point in his life. While the ideas seemed like pure fiction back then, the sheer capability of today’s robots like the self-balancing one by Boston Dynamics and baby delivering robot by MIT, go well beyond that.
Likewise, a Russian programmer from Perm, Alexander Osipovich, built on his childhood dream as he unveiled the 3D-printed version of the T-800 robot that featured in the famous blockbuster movie. While the robot can only move its head, for now; Osipovich claims that the robot is equipped with a “brain” which allows it to “intelligently” respond to various questions by looking up the answers on the internet.
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Inspired by “The Terminator,” the Perm-based programmer started his studies back in 2009. Osipovich also began working on the “brain” of his real-life T-800 machine, and over the next two years; he managed to develop multiple versions of it using the Visual Basic.
After that, he started using 3D-printing in 2011 to create an apt physical representation of the robot and even received a detailed schematic for building the Terminator in 2013 from Google.
The tech giant was focusing on the promotion of DIY projects back then, and Osipovich took full advantage of it as he wrote to them about his intentions and asked for instructions on building an actual robot. Google obliged and sent him back a detailed schematic to put the T-800 together. The only thing required at that point was the 3D-printing of the parts and their assembly.
It took Osipovich nearly four years to print all the parts, and now, his T-800 is almost complete and fully assembled. But he still is looking for actuators strong enough to power its limbs, so, for now, the menacing Terminator is confined to a wheelchair.
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The 200,000 rubles ($3,500) T-800 Terminator might be physically challenged, but its artificial intelligence is the most impressive feature of the robot as it can search and assemble intelligent answers to several verbal commands. Everything it discovers goes into his knowledge base, so the robot is learning things for now.
Alexander Osipovich revealed in his interview to ProPerm that he now looks to find the motors to make his robot more mobile while he is also writing code to control its movements. He plans to enhance his robot’s knowledge base and give it the ability to recognize various objects around it.
What are your thoughts on this real-life Terminator machine? Comment below!