Boston Dynamic and DARPA’s Legged Squad Support System (LS3) “Pack Mule” is semi-autonomous and can carry 400 pounds of gear through tumultuous terrain.
Holy Cyborg Bull, Batman! The enemy may have you surrounded, but DARPA is trying to make it so that a quiet LS3 bot can press on through tree-clad terrain, as though it were an actual animal.
It will then come as a surprise when the “pack mule” robot arrives within the besieged camp bearing hundreds of pounds of medical supplies . . . and AMMUNITION!
The prototype’s hooves and way of walking (with their legs bent in mammal style) freakishly remind one of cyborg boars as the LS3 units amiably scale mountainous rock formations, fall and even appear to roll from their belly back to their feet, and trot on flat surfaces for up to seven miles per hour.
The LS3 program demonstrated two robotic “pack mule” prototypes for the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James F. Amos, and DARPA Director, Arati Prabhakar, and you have to take note of this video to believe it!
The future is here, but will these DARPA dogs be roaming our streets too?
The fact that these powerful mimicking robots have the ability to think and work their way around difficult moving situations is practically science fiction (you have to love Ray Bradbury’s foresight in Fahrenheit 451, folks).
How will robots that can greatly outgun, overmatch, and out-lift humans play into our future security? Maybe they already are, but we do not see them as they act like an all too real animal far too well.
