Robot dogs are used at Cape Canaveral to perform maintenance tasks. They can be piloted or autonomous. While proving useful, however, they are described as ” unstoppable by the manufacturer, which generates some discomfort in a military context.
We love dogs. Perhaps a little less their dystopian cyberpunk version: ironclad robot dogs used by the military. It is this type of machine that was highlighted during an event that took place at the end of July 2022 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in the United States. As reported by the American media Gizmodothe American army was there showcase robot dogs used for maintenance and security purposes, to assist space launches.
The two metal canines respond to the small name of Q-UGV. ” The Q-UGV will be used for damage assessment and for patrols, to save significant man-hours “Explains the army in the caption of the photographs taken during the event. They will be used for manual and repetitive tasks “.
They can be controlled remotely or by voice command, as much as they can perform automatic tasks in a fully autonomous way. They have already been mobilized for 2 years with each launch of spacecraft. They can also serve as alternative relay antennas.
“They are unstoppable”
In itself, the use made of these robot dogs is therefore not very scary and they seem to be rather useful on a daily basis.
They do, however, trigger a certain uneasiness. No doubt for a contextual reason: the military framework. And just read the description made by the manufacturer Ghost Robotics: ” They’re unstoppable, with the ability to get back up immediately after a slip, fall or miss and keep going thanks to our exclusive blind mode system. »
As a general rule, the use of this type of robot in the army tends to be controversial because of the possible diversion in the form of weapons: the ethical questions are numerous. robot dogs equipped with a weapon had thus made the buzz by arousing reactions of dread. A hacker even proposed a solution to… neutralize such a robot dog and its machine gun.
Keep in mind, however, that this type of robot can be a privileged tool in extreme circumstances, such as support during natural disasters. Thus, for several years now, the firefighters of Paris have been accompanied by Colossus, an extremely efficient firefighter robot that can resist fire and heat like no human. This one, however, has humanitarian purposes, and does not adopt the form of any animal to which one is attached.
The lines become more blurred when robotics is inspired by known forms. This is where the valley of the uncanny for humanoid robots comes from: the more they look like us while being clearly artificial, the more they terrify us. There is no doubt that robots will be able to become increasingly useful as tools, but that a critical spirit and a framework in the type of uses will always have to guide the way in which they are put into practice.
