At Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, U.S. Marines ran Google X’s latest robot dog named Spot through a series of tests.
[revad1]
This robot, originally developed by Boston Dynamics has been updated to be more agile and was sent into buildings at Quantico ahead of Marines to look for threats.
Spot includes a LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) laser imaging sensor similar to the ones on Google’s driverless cars.
“We want to continue to experiment with quadruped technology and find ways that this can be employed to enhance the Marine Corps warfighting capabilties,” said Capt. James Pineiro who runs the Marines Warfighting Lab.
_____________
More from PCWorld.com:
The latest version of a walking, quadruped battlefield robot from Boston Dynamics, the military robotics maker owned by Google X, was tested by U.S. Marines last week.
Spot weighs about 70kgs, is electrically operated and walks on four hydraulically-actuated legs. It’s controlled via wireless by an operator who can be up to 500 meters away.
It underwent trials and testing at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia as part of evaluations by the Marines on future military uses of robotic technology. In a series of missions, it was evaluated in different terrains including hills, woodlands and urban areas.
