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I for one welcome our robot slaves.
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The LS3 performed well in tests in the California desert, where it could scramble up rocks and avoid those too big to climb. In Georgia, it crossed streams and tore through mud. But out here in the thick woods of Massachusetts, across ground strewn with wet leaves, the environment offered other challenges.
And the nature of the combat drills brought up a series of new questions. Where will the robot go if there is contact with an enemy? What would the most useful commands be in a tactical situation? If the robot is retreating, will that disrupt Marine reinforcements coming toward the sound of gunfire? Is it a good idea to take cover behind the robot? (Future versions will be armored.) Can Boston Dynamics program a shortcut command that the operator could utter that sends the LS3 to the rear, without wasting time on the controller? (Yes, they say.)
Beedle walks across the field and heads into the woods with the rest of the squad. The robot in this test, an LS3 called Norfolk, follows him. About a dozen program observers trail them, trying not to be anxious. The LS3 will halt and sit down if it loses contact with Beedle, who patiently walks back until the sensors reacquire the pattern on his backpack. The Marine switches back and forth between follow-tight mode and direct joystick control.
The machine handles thin brush and inclines well and regains its footing when it plunges a leg into one of the many leaf-filled holes. The speed at which it can rebalance is a marvel, shooting a leg out to stop a collapse. Then, while trying to follow Beedle's path, it hits a 4-inch-thick tree. You'd think Norfolk could take out this obstacle, and, indeed, it tries, banging its girth against the wood and tearing bark. But the struggle inflicts more damage to the robot—by dumb luck the tree is wedged into the front-leg socket, severing the connective wiring that sends commands to the computer in its chest. The leg is crippled and Norfolk is down for the count.
Beedle walks over sheepishly. "I like this system," he says. "It sucks that I broke it."
An ATV with a crane, used by the lumber industry to haul logs in terrain with no roads, ferries the crippled LS3 out of the woods. The engineers at Boston Dynamics try to look at this not as a failure but a learning experience. The impact tore through the thin plastic guard that protects that wiring. No other LS3 will ever have this critical junction so exposed again. "This," Bondaryk says, "is why we test."
Read more: The Day the Marines Met Their Robotic Mule – Popular Mechanics
looks for scenario material in a World War IV boardgame.
