And this is why as soon as Boston Dynamics said no to the government, suspiciously, a company named Ghost Dynamics spun up with practically the exact same frames
If this is what robotics is going to be used for I think a lot more roboticists need their hands chopped off at the wrists
They strapped an m4 on some servos on a robot dog with a rangefinder camera on top.
I would have expectedly a gun designed for the dog like some tank turret. This is less impressive than expected.
Well, I guess it's a prototype. Also guessing they'll soon start murdering people like this. Beautiful world we live in.
But Boston dynamics promised it was going to have a little barrel of whiskey around its neck and it would go find avalanche survivors!
From a product development viewpoint, the gun is an uninteresting part. It's better to use something that already has a mature production line and has been thoroughly field tested. It's the vision and control systems they are interested in developing, the gun is just the chosen end effector for this application.
Even when they're ready to start deploying systems like this, there's a lot of value in using compenents that the military already has a lot of spare parts for and that personnel know how to maintain. I wouldn't expect a custom gun until units like this are commonplace.
"Just like in the treats."