While’an exercise under real conditions Spot was organized by the Combined Arms Military School in Saint-Cyr and accompanied the students on a mission. His goal: to educate people to see if the way is clear.
We no longer present Spot, the robot dog from Boston Dynamics. Now marketed, it is used in many areas, from monitoring on a Norwegian oil rig to fighting Covid-19 to doing missions with the police. On the other hand, it had never been observed in the military field and beyond in France.
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Accompanied by other robots, he took part in an exercise to make students aware of the challenges of tomorrow and, in particular, of the robotisation of the battlefield. Several scenarios were presented: an offensive action aimed at capturing an intersection, defensive actions day and night, or even an urban combat test. In each case, the exercise was performed with and without a robot to observe the effects the latter can have.
21. I use the robot to detect OSCAR3.
Back in pictures to the applied research exercise organized by EMIA and the research center on March 30th and 31st. Robotization of the battlefield: raising students’ awareness of tomorrow’s challenges. #CapaciTERRE #Robot pic.twitter.com/HiZ2BFOZPY– Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan (@SaintCyrCoet) April 6, 2021
While they often slowed down the work of the military, they also saved their lives. “I was killed during the urban combat phase without a robot. But not at the time when the robot was doing the detection, ”explained one student Western France. The robots showed their limits nonetheless, especially Spot, which ran out of batteries when fully loaded.
It was a first for Spot on French soil. Contacted by The edgeMichael Perry, vice president of business development at Boston Dynamics, said the robot was supplied by European distributor Shark Robotics, but Boston Dynamics had not been made aware that its device would be used in a military setting. Spot’s Terms of Use state that it is prohibited to use it to “harm or intimidate a person or animal, such as a weapon, or to activate a weapon”.
Boston Dynamics Quadruped UGV Spot and Shark Robotics Electric Barakuda UGV take part in exercises at the French military research school, Center de recherche des écoles de @ SaintCyrCoet (CREC)#ugv #unmanned #unmannedvehicles #Robotics #Military #Research #Training #France pic.twitter.com/1WCASPmdA4
– Melanie Rovery (@MelanieRovery) April 7, 2021
“We believe that to the extent that the military uses robotics to incapacitate people, it is a perfectly valid use of technology. With this forward deployment model that you are discussing, we need to understand this better in order to determine whether or not it is being actively used to harm people. “said Michael Perry.
The exercise of the combined weapons school shows that the military field is actually in the middle of robotization. As explained GizmodoFor example, quadrupedal robots that resemble Spot and were developed by the Chinese company Unitree Robotics also appear to be intended for military use.
