AlphaDog is still a work in progress. The
ROBOTICS
robot can only walk at 1-5mph, but it can
climb up steep hills and roads. Boston
Dynamics expects to boost that to 10mph
soon. The version of AlphaDog shown off
in the video has also become much
quieter than the last iteration — about 10
times quieter, in fact. The next step will
be to have AlphaDog accompany Marines
on some military exercises. In the future,
DARPA would like to make AlphaDog voice
The robot known as AlphaDog has been
in development for a number of years,
enabled, so soldiers could talk to it and
get verbal responses.
getting more efficient and life-like all the
So just to sum this up; giant robot dog
time. AlphaDog is a joint project from
that can run 10mph, tracks humans, talk,
Boston Dynamics and the Pentagon’s
and can run for 20 miles without stopping.
DARPA. It can now follow a human being
Certainly this won’t come back to bite
across the terrain. AlphaDog, or as it’s
humanity.
more properly known the Legged Squad
Support System, is a 4-legged robot
M. ARTHI (10X010)
designed to walk up to 20 miles at a time
III BSc CT G1
while carrying up to 400 pounds of gear.
Until now, AlphaDog has been walking
along pre-prescribed paths or with direct
ROCKING INVENTIONS
remote control. This limits the usefulness
of the robot in the field. Now AlphaDog
can just be told to follow the target like a
faithful pet. The operator carries a device
called a Marine Corps Tactical Robot
Controller. This touchscreen device can be
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
used to issue commands to the robot, but
is also used as beacon by AlphaDog. In
following mode, the operator can change
how close AlphaDog will walk.
The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card
sized computer that costs little
more than a textbook.
DATUM’13
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