The Marine Corps is testing Google's all-terrain "Spot" robot

The Breakthrough

Several drills over the weekend has had the US Marine Corps test their new four-legged companion to see if it had what it takes to work closely with infantrymen in various situations. The test subject that had been used was the Spot robot made by Boston Dynamics (a Google subsidiary), which they revealed February of this year. The quadruped robot was brought to the Marine Corps Base located in Quantico, Virginia by a team from DARPA or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. This same agency has already tested numerous robots from Boston Dynamics already including their BigDog quadruped robot.

The Implications

The Spot robot has received positive praises from their handlers including Captain James Pineiro, who is the head of the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab's Quantico branch. He says that the marines have also been very receptive with the robot technology, and have already come up with many ideas on how to use Spot. This new technology has great potential which could really bolster the warfighting capabilities of US dismounted infantry in the future. Aside from that, the Marine Corps may no longer need to employ live dogs in war when robots like Spot can be used for such task.