The Army was testing at least one armed quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicle at an installation in Saudi Arabia.
  • frauddogg [they/them, null/void]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    1 month ago

    And this is why as soon as Boston Dynamics said no to the government, suspiciously, a company named Ghost Dynamics spun up with practically the exact same frames

    If this is what robotics is going to be used for I think a lot more roboticists need their hands chopped off at the wrists

  • geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml
    0·
    1 month ago

    They strapped an m4 on some servos on a robot dog with a rangefinder camera on top.

    I would have expectedly a gun designed for the dog like some tank turret. This is less impressive than expected.

    • jordanlund@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 month ago

      Cheaper than a ground up design. But I think you can start the clock until someone uses a grinder and cuts the gun right off.

    • Fermion@feddit.nl
      0·
      1 month ago

      From a product development viewpoint, the gun is an uninteresting part. It’s better to use something that already has a mature production line and has been thoroughly field tested. It’s the vision and control systems they are interested in developing, the gun is just the chosen end effector for this application.

      Even when they’re ready to start deploying systems like this, there’s a lot of value in using compenents that the military already has a lot of spare parts for and that personnel know how to maintain. I wouldn’t expect a custom gun until units like this are commonplace.

      • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        1 month ago

        But Boston dynamics promised it was going to have a little barrel of whiskey around its neck and it would go find avalanche survivors!

  • TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org
    0·
    1 month ago

    EMP harpoons, electrified nets, and thermite-dispensing Raspberry Pi powered smart drone swarms, get yer open source killer robot dog countermeasures on Tindie.com now, 25% off sale.

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      1 month ago

      Israel has already been doing this in Gaza, but with airstrikes. Giving a robot the ability to pull the trigger is barely different to air-striking buildings based on statistical modelling the likelihood that terrorists are inside as your only form of “intelligence” — especially when you don’t care about civilian casualties and have already proven to shoot first and not even bother asking questions later.

      • ImmortanStalin@lemmygrad.ml
        0·
        1 month ago

        I don’t think bombing your entire probability space counts as statistical modeling. They’re just layering their carpet bombing campaign with vaporware propaganda. They’re using bombs that can level whole blocks in densely populated areas.