Future of robots in the US military

The US military is planning to use robots extensively during operations.

The US Department of Defence has hired Boston Dynamics to develop a robot capable of carrying loads cross-country. Total cost of contract is $ 32 million.


The technical demands say that the machine must weight under 570 kg and has to be capable of transporting up to 180 kg of payload to the distance of up to 30 km cross-country. It must be fully autonomous and operate round the clock.


Acording to preliminary data the robot will be able to walk, trot, leap, jump over obstacles, and regain balance if destabilized by external factors.


In addition, the DoD is asking inventors to develop a robotic system that can evacuate injured troops from the battlefield.


The research has been going on for several years, but the various prototypes designed so far fail to meet a number of key characteristics. In particular, robo-medic must be capable of finding, identifying, and evacuating injured troops while under fire with little or no help from outside. It should be capable of moving over various types of terrain (urban, jungle, mountain etc.) Robot’s arms and grippers should be able to cope with a large number of body positions and types of locations in which casualties can be found. Transporting must be done without the risk of causing additional harm. The army also wants the robot to provide remote communication between the injured and medical personnel. Otherwise, the robot should be capable of running the initial status check on the casualty on its own.

Source: The New Scientist