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From The Sunday Times
April 8, 2007

This’ll lick ’em: K9 set to join the war effort

Robert Booth

A soldier's best friend could soon be a robotic dog. The American military is developing robots the size of doberman pinschers to carry ammunition, food and other equipment into battle alongside troops.

A prototype of “BigDog” weighing 11st has been built by the same Pentagon agency that pioneered stealth aircraft and will be used on terrain that is too rough for wheeled vehicles.

It is powered by a petrol engine and its legs are articulated like a dog’s to absorb shock and recycle energy between steps. It can cross a 3ft ditch with a load for two soldiers packed into its saddle bags and can clamber up a rock-strewn 35-degree hill.

Military chiefs hope their special forces will be able to use the robot on operations such as the hunt for Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters in the mountains of Afghanistan. However, it is still some way off deployment as the prototype can travel at only 3.3mph. A faster robot that can move at the pace of a middle distance runner is being developed.

“BigDog is going to give us the ability to have a mechanical mule to follow us around in the field and carry a couple of hundred pounds of supplies,” said John Main, programme manager at America’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency.

BigDog is controlled by an on-board computer. A video camera at the front acts as eyes for an operator. Other sensors monitor BigDog’s hydraulic pressure, oil temperature, engine temperature and battery charge.

It is not the first time the US has turned to the animal kingdom for battlefield inspiration. When GIs suffered difficulties with tropical terrain during the Vietnam war, the same agency dreamt up a mechanical elephant.

The machine was a flop and never made it into operation. Its only visible legacy is the walking robots that George Lucas pitted against Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films.

Affirmative, Master.

HA! I want one!!!

Mab, Dublin, Ireland.

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