Photo: USAF/Airman 1st Class yuki klein VIR
It is officially known as the Quadrupedal Unmanned Ground Vehicle (or Quad-legged Unmanned Ground Vehicle), but the world knows it as one of the few robot dogs in existence. It’s one of those robotic creatures we’ve learned to dread through sci-fi literature and films, only it’s real and it now patrols the grounds of the Portland Air National Guard Base (PANGB).
The robot is made by a company called Ghost Robotics, with the stated goal of providing patrol and monitoring functions. It has been on the grounds of the PANGB since December last year, and it’s now officially working alongside humans.
Similar in design with the Boston Dynamics Spot, the thing can move at speeds of up to 1.6 m/s (5.2 ft./sec) and can keep going on a single battery charge for as much as 10 hours.
Deployed with the 142nd Security Forces Squadron, the robot can independently track the perimeter of the base over a variety of terrain, look at areas of interest with a variety of cameras that even capture details not perceptible to the human eye, and, if need be, allow humans to control it for whatever purpose.
The people in charge of defending the base say the robot gives them better situational awareness through the real-time video feedback it is capable of supplying, and because it looks the way it does, it is also an effective deterrent.
“We're kind of spearheading this whole side of security, this autonomous defender as they say, which makes me feel really good and proud to be in the unit,” said in a statement Tech. Sgt. Jamie Cuniff, 142nd SFS logistics and resources noncommissioned officer.
“From a security standpoint, it's going to benefit us in the way that it provides some real time video feedback and also acts as a deterrent.”
At the time of writing, there’s only one such robot patrolling the grounds of the base. The unit running it plans to add two more in the near future, making for a small squad of three such machines.
Similar in design with the Boston Dynamics Spot, the thing can move at speeds of up to 1.6 m/s (5.2 ft./sec) and can keep going on a single battery charge for as much as 10 hours.
Deployed with the 142nd Security Forces Squadron, the robot can independently track the perimeter of the base over a variety of terrain, look at areas of interest with a variety of cameras that even capture details not perceptible to the human eye, and, if need be, allow humans to control it for whatever purpose.
The people in charge of defending the base say the robot gives them better situational awareness through the real-time video feedback it is capable of supplying, and because it looks the way it does, it is also an effective deterrent.
“We're kind of spearheading this whole side of security, this autonomous defender as they say, which makes me feel really good and proud to be in the unit,” said in a statement Tech. Sgt. Jamie Cuniff, 142nd SFS logistics and resources noncommissioned officer.
“From a security standpoint, it's going to benefit us in the way that it provides some real time video feedback and also acts as a deterrent.”
At the time of writing, there’s only one such robot patrolling the grounds of the base. The unit running it plans to add two more in the near future, making for a small squad of three such machines.
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