Watch The Robot-Dog Which Might Just Be The Marines’ Best Friend

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US Marines are getting a new four-legged buddy named “Spot.” This one, however, doesn’t bark, doesn’t sleep, and they won’t need to pick up its droppings. That’s because Spot is a hydraulically actuated, electrically powered, 75.5 kilogram robot from Boston Dynamics.

Marines from the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab have undergone training in operating spot, under the supervision of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Boston Dynamics at the Quantico Marine Corps Base.

“We want to continue to experiment with quadruped technology and find ways that this can be employed to enhance the Marine Corps warfighting capabilities,” said Capt. James Pineiro of the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab.

The Marines practiced operating Spot in various terrains and scenarios, including hills, woods, and urban terrain.

“I think a robot like Spot has tons of opportunities [Marines] could use it for, like scouting or load carriage,” said Ben Swilling, a roboticist with Boston Dynamics.

Using Spot is surprisingly simple. The robot communicates via radio with a dedicated laptop, where an operator uses a video game controller to operate the machine.

“It’s actually very easy to operate the robots,” said Swilling. “We have had people as young as four run the robot around.”

While Spot is not the first quadruped robot – “BigDog” and LS3 have preceded it – it is certainly an improvement. Spot is lighter, leaner, quieter, and most importantly – it is much more agile. It brings research in the area a big step forward to producing a robot that could be used in the real world.

“Spot is great and has exceeded the metrics that we’ve provided,” said Pineiro. “We see it as a great potential for the future dismounted infantry.”