Monday, October 5, 2020

Robot Dogs - Coming Soon to a War or Demonstration Near You

Here is a recent article from the United States Air Force Expeditionary Center website:

 


You will notice that the "object" behind Tech. Sgt. John Rodiguez is identified as a Ghost Robots Vision 60 prototype.  Here is a further quote from the article:


"A team of 10 Airmen from the 621st Contingency Response Group participated in an agile combat employment exercise Sept. 1-3 at Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado, and Nellis AFB, Nevada, with other active-duty and Air National Guard Airmen from across the United States.

 

Devil Raiders brought their unique multifunctional skill sets to the exercise that also tested the Advanced Battle Management System, which is a state-of-the-art system designed to provide combatant commanders the ability to control Department of Defense assets in real time.

 

According to an Air Force news story, the goal of ABMS is to enable the Air Force and Space Force to operate together as a joint team – connecting sensors, decision makers and weapons through a secure data network enabling rapid decision making and all-domain command and control.

 

The 621st Contingency Response Wing team provided security forces, command and control, aircraft maintenance, aerial port and communications Airmen for the ACE exercise.

 

During the exercise, the team flew from Buckley to Nellis via New York’s 109th Airlift Wing LC-130 Hercules aircraft.

 

“After we land, everything moves quick,” said Tech. Sgt. Greg Hochgesang, 621st Contingency Response Squadron aircraft maintenance craftsman.

 

Once the Devil Raiders landed on the first chalk, the security forces Airmen secured the airfield in a traditional and unconventional way.

 

Our defenders employed the robot dogs,” said Master Sgt. Lee Boston, 321st CRS loadmaster and the CR team chief for the exercise. “These robot dogs are a new technology that we’re testing as part of the exercise. The dogs give us visuals of the area, all while keeping our defenders closer to the aircraft.

 

After the airfield was secured, maintainers assessed their own aircraft for damage, then marshalled the next LC-130 into its spot." (my bold)

 

For this security exercise, the United States Air Force deployed Ghost Robotics Vision 60 robot dogs as part of their test exercise.

  

Here is a screen capture from the "About" page of the Philadelphia-based Ghost Robotics (Robots That Feel the World) website:

 


Here is a video showing the Ghost Robotics Vision 60 Version 4 robot in action, using "Blind-Mode":

 


Note how quickly it recovers from being kicked or pushed over.

 

Here is a video showing the Ghost Robotics Vision 60 being deployed for public safety purposes:

 


So, not only are robot dogs coming soon to a war near you, this quadruped robot could be used by police/security forces as part of their operations to control demonstrators and provide security for their officers by providing real-time situational data.  


The canine robots are currently unarmed...at least for now. 


1 comment:

  1. We should all be worried about the military using more robots. Japan has joined those calling for regulating killer robots. With the policy shift, Japan is now hoping it can play a more dynamic role in crafting international rules on what have been called lethal autonomous weapons systems, or LAWS.
    Falling into this category are killer drones, however, there is also the growing concern of how drones might become or be used as weapons of mass destruction that would leave humans utterly defenseless. More on these weapons in the article below.
    https://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2019/03/japan-has-joined-call-for-regulating.html

    ReplyDelete