Thanks to Hollywood and entertainment media when we think of robots we tend to imagine humanoid machines, sometimes so closely resembling their real-life counterparts that the two are almost indiscernible.  Because of that, there’s nothing that can really adequately prepare for this headless robotic monstrosity conjured up by the bright minds at DARPA.

Troops have it hard, after all the fighting, tough living conditions and daily stresses they face, they still have to lug around the majority of their equipment by hand. When you need to travel in excess of ten miles a day and you need to carry around anything from 40 to 100 pounds of equipment, not including body armour, the burden becomes quite severe.

“[T]he active duty soldier carries so much weight, so often, that he often develops what Dutch DeGay, equipment specialist at the Army’s Soldier System Center, calls “the infantryman lean;” the effect of an off-duty soldier leaning forward when he walks even though he carries no pack at all.”

It was for exactly this reason that DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) developed a “Legged Squad Support System”. The altogether uncuddly LS3, created under the agency’s Big Dog Technology, is capable of carry up to 400lbs of weight for up to 20 miles in a single day.

The project’s been on-going for several years, some of you might recall this video from late last year, and is now reaching its final 18-month development cycle which will conclude with field training with troops. The latest edition of the robot seems to be slightly more agile than its predecessors and is ready to receive voice-command programming. So next time you see a clip of good ol’ LS3 it’ll be responding to orders like ‘come’, ‘sit’ or ‘stop’.

I know that the robot has been designed for troop support, but the thought of that mechanical beast charging at me is more terrifying than any tank I’ve seen. Whether in support or on the attack one thing’s certain; what has been seen can never be unseen.

[Source: Business Insider]