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The
machine-dominated world envisioned by James Cameron in “Terminator” once
seemed like pure science fiction, but now, not so much. Just a few days
ago, a Russian programmer from Perm unveiled his 3D-printed version of
the T-800 robot featured in Cameron’s famous blockbuster, and while it
can currently only move its head, it is equipped with a “brain” that
allows it to speak and even answer various questions, by looking up the
answers on the internet.
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Perm-based programmer Alexander Osipovich knew he wanted to one day
build his own Terminator robot as a child, after watching the 1984 movie
featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2009, while studying programming at
university, Osipovich started working on a program that would one day
act as the brain of his real-life T-800 machine. Over the next two
years, he developed multiple versions of it in Visual Basic, and in 2011
he decided that technology had come far enough to allow him to fulfill
his childhood dream.
But even though he had the “brain” of the robot all figured out, the
physical representation of the T-800 was a completely different matter.
But then 3D-printing happened and Alexander was quick to take advantage
of it. He received a detailed schematic for building the Terminator from
Google, in 2013. At the time, the technology company was heavily
promoting DIY projects, and Osipovich wrote them about the program he
had written, asking for instructions on building an actual robot. They
sent him back a schematic for putting the T-800 together, complete with
the exact positioning of the actuators that would power its movements.
All he had to do was 3D-print the parts himself, so that same year he
bought a 3D-printer and got to work.
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It took him nearly 4 years to create all the necessary parts out of
plastic, but his T-800 is finally complete, or, nearly so, anyway. All
the parts have been printed and assembled, but because Alexander
Osipovich couldn’t get his hands on actuators strong enough to power its
limbs, the menacing-looking Terminator remains confined to a wheelchair.
The only actuators he could fit on the T-800 so far come from a
radio-controlled toy helicopter, and they are only powerful enough to
move the robot’s head and its jaw. However, it’s only a matter of time
until this issue is resolved.
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The most impressive thing about this real-life T-800 Terminator is
undoubtedly the artificial intelligence that allows it to speak, answer
questions after looking for the answers online and even recognize
several verbal commands. And, most importantly, everything John Henry –
the name given to the robot – discovers goes into his knowledge base, so
he’s basically learning things.
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Alexander Osipovich told ProPerm that he plans to improve his Terminator
by equipping its limbs with proper actuators and writing a software to
control its movements. He also wants to enhance its knowledge base and
develop a program that helps the machine recognize various objects
around it. There’s still much work to be done, but we might just see a
moving intelligent T-800 robot much sooner than we thought.
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