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Robotics

Russian Army Expo Shows Off Robot Dog Carrying Rocket Launcher (pcmag.com) 56

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
At a military convention in Russia, a local company is showing off a robot dog that's carrying a rocket launcher. From a report: Russian news agency RIA Novosti today filmed the four-legged bot at the Army 2022 convention, which is taking place near Moscow and sponsored by the country's Ministry of Defense. The robot was recorded trotting along on the convention floor while wielding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher on its back. The robot is also capable of crouching on the floor, making it harder to spot, while it presumably waits to fire off a rocket. It remains unclear if the robot will ever be used on the field when Russia is locked in a war with Ukraine, and already using air-based drones at least for recon and targeting purposes. But according to RIA Novosti, the bot is dubbed the M-81 system and comes from a Russian engineering company called "Intellect Machine." The developers say the robot dog is being designed to both transport weapons and ammunition and fire them during combat missions.
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Russian Army Expo Shows Off Robot Dog Carrying Rocket Launcher

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  • "It was a dog!" (Score:3)

    by dskoll ( 99328 ) on Monday August 15, 2022 @04:19PM (#62792051) Homepage

    It was a dog that accidentally destroyed our airbase. It was unfortunately smoking at the time.

  • I'd like to see it demonstrate how it gets up after falling over... while packing a fully-loaded RPG launcher.

  • I think I would rather have a robot cheetah with a rocket launcher. Those pesky Russians never seem to have high aims.

  • Can't Even Get the Basics Right (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nealric ( 3647765 ) on Monday August 15, 2022 @04:34PM (#62792071)

    The Russian military industrial complex likes to boast about super high tech weapons in various expos, but it can't even get the basics right. The supposedly "best in the world" T14 Armata tank was supposed to be a super high tech ubertank, but they can't actually make them in numbers, nor do they have any way of integrating these weapons into battlefield strategies. They supposedly already have an unmanned land combat vehicle (the Uran 9), but it's been conspicuously absent from the battlefield despite its debut several years ago. Ukraine has exposed Russia as a Potemkin Army. They are buying drones from Iran out of desperation because with all that high tech stuff they supposedly have, they can't even establish air superiority against an adversary that barely has an air force to speak of.

    As to this thing... you can buy Robot dogs knocking off the infamous Boston Dynamics one for under $1,000 of Amazon. Those are too small for anything more than a pistol, but I'm sure the Chinese will scale one up on a custom order. It wouldn't take much to strap an RPG-7 to one and use a servo to integrate a remote trigger. That doesn't mean it's actually a remotely effective weapon. But hey, it lets the Russians boast that they have high tech robo weapons!

    • Oddly, the Soviet army in desperate WWII campaigns actually trained dogs to run underneath tanks and armored vehicles. Then they took them to the front and released them with explosive satchel charges and contact fuses strapped on their backs. Was seldom tried because the poor dogs were about as likely to run the Russian tanks as the nazi German ones. Death by man's best friendly fire. Or pet-rocide.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Pretty much. Weapons salesmen are even less honest than used-car salesmen.

    • I'm a big confused by the pictures. The floor mat says "ARMY" all over (stylized "A" with a star). In Roman characters, not Cyrillic. What is this military conference in Russia where English is the primary language, and what are native English speakers doing over there that isn't violating a lot of laws?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ugen ( 93902 )

        That's all part of the Russian crazy environment. They borrow words from the language of their stated enemy and don't think twice. In the country where images of Lenin and Communist past live happily next to orthodox priests and churches which the former used to destroy, this is a very minor issue indeed.
        I also assure you that virtually no one is a "native English speaker" (or even speaks English at a usable level) over there.

        • They speak English where is required: in tourism. That is, hostels, hotels, airports, etc.

          If you're outside a tourist context then they just speak Russian, because it's Russia after all. In the same way a russian will go to USA and start talking in Russian outside tourist locations, no one will speak in Russian.

          Now, regarding contradictions... C'mon!... I mean... C'mon!!!

          USA's last known contradiction: they turned to the Pariah Prince for Oil, not to mention that they even consider to turn to Maduro

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by goranb ( 209371 )

            USA's last known contradiction

            ah, right, the well known "US" tradition: whataboutism

            • I think that "whataboutism" doesn't apply in my case.

              I'm not taking part on either side but express my opinion from a third party spectator.
              • An example of "whataboutism" is when two candidates running for the presidency start saying in a debate "you too do/did that..." instead of refuting the accusation made by its contender.

                That is, "whataboutism" is when one person presents a "you too" argument without refuting the accusation made by its contender.

                The key part is that those persons, both are involved in a discussion/conflict/fight in which a "winner" must prevail.

                The only person that can say to either of them "you too do/did that..."

      • What is this military conference in Russia where English is the primary language

        A meeting of arms traders. You are in fact looking at a Chinese made robot dog covered with a blanket. The arms market is quite international when your own best efforts extend to bolding a Canon DSLR onto a cheap hobby plane and call it a "military drone".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sinij ( 911942 )
      With sanctions on Russia, they can maybe build ONE prototype of whatever they are trying to do. The rest will have to operate on lamps.

    • Someone already tracked down the robodog product on AliExpress in the comments on the Twitter video linked in the summary.

    • I don't know why is moderated as 'Insightful' and given 5 points.

      Your post is just as biased as anything said from RT.

      I mean, c'mon!, because other countries that claim to have military superiority didn't crumble down against a weaker enemy, right? (Vietnam)

    • But hey, it lets the Russians boast that they have high tech robo weapons!

      Even if they did just superglue a rocket launcher onto a Chinese Unitree Go1 robot https://shop.unitree.com/produ... [unitree.com] and then cover it in a blanket so you can't tell it wasn't Russian.

    • The supposedly "best in the world" T14 Armata tank was supposed to be a super high tech ubertank, but they can't actually make them in numbers, nor do they have any way of integrating these weapons into battlefield strategies.

      The T-14 Armata is best at what it does, but what it does is obsolete. It's got absolutely zero protection against top-attack ATGMs like the Javelin, so they can't field them. They cost about $4M apiece to produce, and can be destroyed with a $78k Javelin. As you say, they can't even shoot anything without foreign components. Russia doesn't have the electronics manufacturing prowess to complete the design domestically. But that's fairly irrelevant, since they are utterly worthless against an opponent who ha

    • I saw a post on Reddit that compared the "Russian" robot to the Boston dynamics one and they matched. The Russians put a crappy "ninja suit" on it to try and disguise it but it is really obvious they bought it off the net and just strapped a rocket launcher on the back.
  • This is the UNITREE GO1 robot dog with black stockings covering it.

  • ...to admit his military is short staffed.

  • That robot is 12 inches tall. Are they planning to develop a rocket launcher designed exclusively to do crotch-shots at ukrainian soldiers?
    • Lets only hope the Russians are stupid enough to send it in for a crotch shot. Ukrainians will make easy work of these, if that's the case. It probably fires up into the air and lets the RPG come down on its target.

      Wasn't there a Black Mirror on these things?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jeremi ( 14640 )

      That robot is 12 inches tall. Are they planning to develop a rocket launcher designed exclusively to do crotch-shots at ukrainian soldiers?

      It was supposed to be 12 feet tall, but there was some confusion regarding the sizing-units on the blueprints.

  • Since it's flexible enough to lick its asshole, it can reload easily.

  • Rocket launchers are generally hard to carry und use weapons that require the launcher-carrier to be protected by better armed people. Hence this is pretty much a worthless stunt.

    • Rocket launchers are generally hard to carry und use weapons that require the launcher-carrier to be protected by better armed people. Hence this is pretty much a worthless stunt.

      I think you just proved its usefulness with your very statement of "fact". Because rocket launchers are generally hard to carry and use weapons, removing the fact that a person is carrying it provides a great usefulness to the weapon. Now the rocket launcher is no longer hard to carry, as a robot is carrying it, leaving the people to worry about the normal things they worry about in a warzone, and not worrying about carrying a rocket launcher and worrying about their own protection detail since they themsel

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        You think putting a launcher on a robot makes it _easier_ to carry and use?

        • I didn't say use, but carry yes, if the robot has good visual pathfinding along with simple interface to essentially "stay", "follow", "come here", "go there", yes, it can be easier to carry.

          Use is another story. I assume there is some kind of camera style interface, and if they were any kind of smart, they would make the interface very "video gamey" so that pretty much most people who grew up playing video games could get the essentials with just 5-10 minutes of instructions for using the interface/aiming

          • and it would most certainly be easier for the boots on the ground to have with them than carrying the rocket launcher themselves...

            You've got sooooooooo many assumptions baked in there I'm wincing here. It has to be reliable over varied terrain, it has to keep up, it needs to last as long as a person carrying that rocket slung over his shoulder would. It needs to be dependable. And as far the video gamey interface, that's just the start of it. It has to be simple enough for crayon eating grunts to operate with minimal training, in highly stressful environments. It probably needs to be easy enough for a five year old, to be safe.

            Ba

        • It could, depending on the robot. There's no reason why a robot can't simplify the experience down to "get the enemy under the crosshairs and press the button". That's literally what technologies like aspect tracking are for. More importantly though, a robot launcher platform can let a user operate a wire-guided missile from a short distance away, minimizing the risk of jamming by bringing the wireless link closer but also not requiring the operator to stand on the spot from which the missile was fired. Tha

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Ocker3 ( 1232550 )
        You're confident that a robot with that short a range (it won't be able to go far on internal power with a battery that small), and legs that short, is going to be able to keep up with infantry marching? It really looks like the weapon is mounted to the chassis, rather than it carrying spare ammunition for a soldier who has a launcher, that would actually be useful.

  • Missed branding opportunity (Score:3)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Monday August 15, 2022 @05:33PM (#62792193) Journal

    Shouldn't the Russian army be using robot wargs instead of robot dogs?

  • ... and raise you a bear [icepop.com].

  • Russia tech can't even stop HIMARS rockets or commercial drones. This catastrophic lack of capabilities make them a last-century army.
  • They covered it in a ninja suit (or Hajib?) to try and hide it! https://shop.unitree.com/ [unitree.com]

  • They don't have enough dwarfs to pilot them.

  • Naah! (Score:2)

    by andot ( 714926 )
    This is porobably stray dog from Moscow wearing robot suit. :)

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