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As if robots weren’t already terrifying enough, now comes news that army soldiers have the ability to control robot dogs using just their minds.
That’s right. Technology has already evolved from drones that can drop robot dogs armed with assault rifles anywhere they want to humans communicating with these robot dogs using a form of “telepathy”
“This collaboration focused on how we could create a brain robotic interface that will allow a soldier, rather than operating an autonomous system with a command console, to operate the system using brain signals,” explained Lieutenant Colonel Kate Tollenaar from the Robotic and Autonomous Systems Implementation and Coordination Office (RICO) of the Australian Army.
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According to The Debrief…
In the video released by the Australian Army, the group testing the new brain robot interface sent commands ‘telepathically’ to a Vision 60 Ghost Robot. Those brain signals directed the ghost robot to traverse an open field toward a series of destinations that the human controller ‘selected’ by thinking about the location.
After a series of successful tests where the robot dog understood and executed the commands perfectly, the team conducted a second set of challenges. These involved human soldiers and robot dogs working in collaboration to clear a series of buildings, and once again, the capable canine robots and their human counterparts succeeded.
“The potential of the project is very broad,” said Sergeant Damien Robinson of the Army’s Combat Service Support Battalion, “At its core, it’s translating brain waves into zeros and ones, and that can be implemented to a number of different systems.”
Robinson also added, “What’s so exciting about this technology is it has the opportunity to be used with a number of different autonomous systems.”
By that, he means things like drones, ground weapons systems, and perhaps even a battalion of robot soldiers.
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