Meet Spot, The US Marines’ New Robo-Dog for War
The military is always coming up with new things to help their combat strategy. Recently we heard of various countries such as China, Japan and the USA creating robot dogs to help in combat. Meanwhile, Boston Dynamics has created Spot. Who is Spot? Spot is a robo-dog who is very different from his contemporaries. He’s said to be ‘tinier’, and a more ‘agile iteration’ of his predecessors.
Spot weighs 160 pounds, is hydraulically actuated with a sensor on its nose to help in navigation and is controlled by a laptop-connected game controller, which can be used by a hidden operator up to 1,600 feet away. This robo-canine is not too new, as he was unveiled in February 2015, however, reports suggest that last week it was put through a series of simulated combat scenes ranging from forests to urban fighting situations.
These tests have been conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab. Spot is now being experimented with, by putting him in situations which would otherwise use real dogs or people. If successful, robo-dogs like Spot could make a difference in the infantry with their abilities of being able to ‘clear rooms and scout for threats.’
Watch the video below and let us know what you think of this new development:
Source: [tw-button size=”medium” background=”#07ABE2″ color=”” target=”_blank” link=”http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/09/marines-give-googles-latest-robot-a-tryout-as-working-dog/”]arstechnica[/tw-button]
