The US has started to deploy robot artificial dogs on guard duty at a major military installation in Florida, the US Air Force announced in an official report on Monday.
“The first official semi-autonomous robot dogs were delivered to Tyndall Air Force Base March 22 for integration into the 325th Security Forces Squadron,” the Air Force News Service (AFNS) said in the report.
The purpose of the Quad-legged Unmanned Ground Vehicles, or Q-UGVs, is to add an extra level of protection to the base, the report explained.
“The robot dogs, designed by Ghost Robotics and Immersive Wisdom, are the first of their kind to be integrated onto a military installation and one of many innovation-based initiatives to begin at Tyndall AFB, coined the ‘Installation of the Future,'” the report said.
Features applied to the robot dogs allow for easy navigation on difficult terrains as they can operate in minus 40-degree to 131-degree Fahrenheit conditions and have 14 sensors to create 360-degree awareness, the report said. The robot dogs are also equipped with a crouch mode that lowers their center-of-gravity, it added.
