interestingengineering.com
US Air Force Puts 'Robodogs' to Test for Base Security
Not much is known about this robodog, but it's bound to undertake a wide array of tasks ranging from communication to perimeter patrol.
Science & Tech
Last week, the U.S. Air Force made the second demonstration of the integrated battle network system called Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS). This program is the first priority of the military for the time being with a $3.3 billion budget over 5 years.
The latest ABMS demonstration was among the biggest conducted in recent history with the participation of 65 government organs including the Coast Guard.
Along with testing the latest data-gathering and sharing systems, the Air Force demonstration also included the field testing of the four-legged robot "dogs". The dogs built by Ghost Robotics were tested for the perimeter defense of Nellis Air Force Base.
They were actually intended to be tested on the first demonstration but technical issues with the bandwidth hindered it.
The Quadrupedal Unmanned Ground Vehicle (Q-UGV) model put to test last week is called Vision 60. It's intended for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Recon (ISR) missions along with inspection, mapping, communication distribution, and security purposes.
Not much is disclosed about what exactly was put to test in the Nellis Air Base during ABMS, but we can see robots that differ slightly from the footage Ghost Robotics released before.
Some sport a pair of antennae on their back and one of them had some sensors and/or communication equipment strapped around where its head would be. And since the testing was postponed to a later date due to bandwidth issues, we can assume that the robots are linked to other systems to share, and perhaps, interpret information.