New armed robot dog can be deployed 'behind the enemy' with a drone
Topics: World News, Military, China, News
Rachel Lang
Featured Image Credit: Kestrel Defense Blood-Wing/Weibo.
Topics: World News, Military, China, News
A video of a Chinese-made drone and 'robot dog' armed with a machine gun is sending chills down the spines of pretty much everyone.
The video, which originated from Chinese social media app Weibo, is now being compared to a particularly grim episode of Netflix's Black Mirror called 'Metalhead'.
If you've seen any Black Mirror episode then you'll have an understandable concern for the future.
The show often casts a dystopian view of what could happen and he does this through extrapolating technology we have today.
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And this one is starting to hit very close to home.
The episode, filmed entirely in black and white, follows the plight of Bella (played by Maxine Peake) who is trying to flee from robotic 'dogs' after the unexplained collapse of human society. Series creator Charlie Brooker has since confirmed the dogs in the episode were influenced by Boston Dynamics' robots, which bear a striking similarity to the Chinese adaptation currently freaking people out online.
Comparisons to the popular Netflix show have come quick and fast.
One Twitter user said: "Wasn’t this a Black Mirror episode?"
Another added: "[This] was already available on that episode of Black Mirror, everything depicted on that series would eventually happen in some form."
A third piped up with: "I don't want to be in a Black Mirror episode. Make it stop."
But you don't need to fear the robot uprising just yet, some of the world's leading robotics companies have pledged not to weaponise their creations.
In an open letter to the robotics industry and their communities, Boston Dynamics, as well as Agility Robotics, ANYbotics, Clearpath Robotics, Open Robotics and Unitree all discussed why 'general purpose robots should not be weaponised'.
The video currently circulating on the web appears to be linked to the Chinese Kestrel Defence company, who are notably absent from the aforementioned list.
As per the Weibo post, the translated caption explains that the combat robot dogs can be deployed 'behind the enemy to launch a surprise attack'.
The full description states: "War dogs descending from the sky, air assault, Red Wing Forward heavy-duty drones deliver combat robot dogs, which can be directly inserted into the weak link behind the enemy to launch a surprise attack or can be placed on the roof of the enemy to occupy the commanding heights to suppress firepower.
"And ground troops [can] conduct a three-dimensional pincer attack on the enemy in the building."
So yeah, that's great.
The Robopocalypse/Skynet invasion may be on its way.