BigDog finally goes out for a walk in a military field test

After years of promotional YouTube videos, Boston Dynamics’ BigDog finally got a taste of real-life action. The quadruped robot was deployed to take part in U.S. military’s multinational bi-annual war-games in Hawaii.

Courtesy of Sploid

The DARPA funded BigDog was designed to function as a cyber pack mule, and carry supplies for the U.S. military across terrain unsuited for vehicles. This specific version of BigDog ─the LS3 ─ nicknamed Cujo, was assigned to a small band of marines during the course of the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) taking place earlier this month on July 14th. The bi-annual military exercise featured 22 nations, 29 ships, six submarines, and more than 200 aircrafts and 25,000 personnel. In light of this grand scheme, BigDog’s job was simple: lug around 180 kg of equipment to resupply troops across 32 kilometers of terrain.

So how did the bot perform? Brandon Dieckmann, the marine in charge of controlling the LS3, stated it could scale about 70 to 80 percent of same terrain that humans can; meaning, much, much better than traditional transportation vehicles. Dieckmann’s squad mate, Huberth Duarte, likened controlling the robot to playing video games, “feels like playing Call of Duty.”

Via Wired