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DARPA's Headless Robotic Mule Takes Load Off Warfighters
Hugh Pickens writes writes "If robots are ever really going to carry the equipment of US soldiers and Marines, they're going to have to act more like pack animals. Now Terri Moon Cronk reports that DARPA's semiautonomous Legged Squad Support System — also known as the LS3 — will carry 400 pounds of warfighter equipment and walk 20 miles at a time also acting as an auxiliary power source for troops to recharge batteries for radios and handheld devices while on patrol. 'It's about solving a real military problem: the incredible load of equipment our soldiers and Marines carry in Afghanistan today,' says Army Lt. Col. Joseph K. Hitt, program manager in DARPA's tactical technology office. The robot's sensors allow it to navigate around obstacles at night, maneuver in urban settings, respond to voice commands, and gauge distances and directions. The LS3 can also distinguish different forms of vegetation when walking through fields and around bushes and avoid logs and rocks with intelligent foot placement on rough terrain (video). The robot's squad leader can issue 10 basic commands to tell the robot to do such things as stop, sit, follow him tightly, follow him on the corridor, and go to specific coordinates. Darpa figures that it's illogical to make a soldier hand over her rucksack to a robotic beast of burden if she's then got to be preoccupied with 'joysticks and computer screens' to guide it forward. 'That adds to the cognitive burden of the soldier,' Hitt explains. 'We need to make sure that the robot also is smart, like a trained animal.'"
How long till they give it a gun? How long till they figure out the Mind-Machine-interface and we get actual Combat operations without humans?
Many of the the superstitious, ill-educated tribesmen that U.S. ground troops regularly encounter already think the Americans are witches. A headless donkey scampering along with supplies will really mess with the heads of the rag-heads. Maybe some of them will flee in terror instead of shooting at our soldiers. Really, what's not to like? You'll excuse me for a moment whilst I cackle in wicked laughter and stroke my black cat with the unnaturally intelligent glow in its eyes. ^_^
A truly excellent pizza parlor is a delight unto the heavens. Treasure the sauce and the toppings!
an actual mule?
Sounds like a very expensive donkey/mule replacement. Why not just use real animals?
How much can a donkey carry?
How far can a donkey travel for before "recharging"?
How quiet is a donkey? Would the donkey sounds draw as much unwanted attention?
How much money would it cost to pick up a donkey in a local market and then feed it?
... but the only thing American troops should be carrying in Afghanistan now, if anything at all, is humanitarian aid. Or vacation equipment, if they came back for a personal tour of non-duty.
... I'd read something in Pop Sci/Mech a few years back about DARPA trying to develope this same concept. Damned if I can remember when, but it ain't a new concept for DARPA...
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
How many bullets can a donkey take (or even near misses) before all your equipment is leaving you at a rapid pace?
Robots don't startle (or die) easy.
An animal has common sense, which makes it a poor companion for military use without a ton of training and even then it's pretty vulnerable.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This thing seems extremely complex, loud and expensive for something that could be done by a horse or a donkey.
so in this metaphor china is actual goat shit, right?
This is perfect for me. I love sports, so long as I'm the one watching them and not playing them. I hate exercise. I love TV, eating and shopping, but carrying my purchases around the shopping center is hard work. Oh yeah I can use a push trolley, but they don't always go all the way out to the car park. And even if they do, how am I supposed to lift them into the trunk and get them out again? Do I look like Superman? So it's great to see DARPA producing technology with civilian applications, and just in time for Xmas! But I want it smaller, with speed stripes and a spoiler, so back to the drawing board I am afraid. But perhaps these civilian versions can pave the way for a later military version? America will be grateful. signed, Grateful taxpayer.
Sounds like a pulp-novel word for people who fight in wars. Specializations include gunshooter and woundfixer.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
A Four armed katfish??!!? Yeeeah buddy. sign me up. Is that 'nother one a dem de'r darpa darpa projects?
So is this going to evolve to R2D2 in future. Robot sidekick?
a soldier hand over her rucksack to a robotic beast of burden
adds to the cognitive burden of the soldier
Free association of ideas: how long 'til the soldier's burden of cognition is entirely handed over to the robotic beast?
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
Boston Dynamics has been working on this (and posting YouTube videos) for years. That this exists isn't news. That it is finally deployed, OK, a little newsy, but nobody that follows robotics is unaware of Big Dog.
BTW -- here is a hilarious spoof video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXI4WWhPn-U
but search for 'big dog' and watch some of the real ones first. Then the spoof - it's a crack up.
The competing agency FARPA is developing competitor to the LS3 technology. The name for this project is the Military Utility Logistics Engine. The stats are about the same except: .01% of LS3 technology.
MULE has a payload of only 200lbs
MULE is quieter
MULE is capable of in situ resource utilization simplifying logistics
MULE is capable of doubling as a food source.
MULE's per unit cost is
FARPA is also working on a more advanced project known as DONKEY, that will have self replicating abilities. Unfortunately this project is still in the early development stages.
When asked about the cost discrepancy between the $5,000,000,000 LS3 project vs the much more cost effective $500 MULE project, Congressmen Porkbarrel, R, MA replied: "I'm sorry I cant hear you over the sound of all this bribe money"
Here is a link to an early prototype of LS3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en-GB&gl=NZ&v=VXJZVZFRFJc
I like how it's no longer "solders", it's "warfighters"! So much more exciting and adventureous! And if you think this new naming is accidental watch the next UFC ppv, enjoy the us army paid full length commercials and Mike Goldberg say the word "Warfighters" a few thousand times like a telemarketer after learning your name.
Ok, project mule completed. Now build us the T-800, that's what we really want in the field!
If it is following soldiers around, whats the advantage in it not being driven by a human?
"Darpa figures that it's illogical to make a soldier hand over her rucksack to a robotic beast of burden if she's then got to be preoccupied with 'joysticks and computer screens' to guide it forward." (Emphasis mine.)
I know that people love sounding politically correct by arbitrarily changing "he" to "she," but in this particular case, it's not only silly but probably wrong. We've been hearing a fair amount lately about how female soldiers aren't allowed in designated combat zones, such as in this piece http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=166303415 In other words, "she" is statistically unlikely compared to "he," here.
It's a funny time when we start to trade in /actual/ correctness for political correctness.
I think these older versions of the BigDog are much cooler.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXJZVZFRFJc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww
I really wish they'd put a T-1000 skull-head on it
Seriously though, I think they should put some wheels on it, because those crappy legs aren't going to work in every situation. Wheels are efficient in many places too, so the thing should have both.
It's the size of a horse, not as agile as a horse, not as intelligent as a horse, and about a million times more noisy then a horse.
/cue "interesting factoid thinking about that made me look up: (The world record is some 160km in about 6 and a half hours)"
Donkey's can be frightened pretty easy yes, Horses if they're not trained, but War-Horses can handle extreme battle conditions pretty well.
Food vs. Batteries is a pretty even trade off. The robot is screwed if an EMP goes off, Horses are going to starve if there isn't any grass. A horse can beat 20miles in a day.
The only really good reason I can think of is packing. You could probably stick this on the back of a Humvee, which isn't really possible with a horse.
What do I mean by that?
- All training sessions for various types of missions would have to take into account all the different ways a mule can act and be ill. What if the mule runs off? What if the mule starts screaming like hell? What if the mule refuses to budge? What if the mule gets a bad leg scrape on day 2 of a 4 day trip? What if you have several mules and they do different things? Mules add far more complexity than robots.
- The same in a camp. You absolutely would need to have all the mules in a big storage area. Let's then say someone lobs a grenade in. How do you check all the mules? How do you clear them for use? With robots, you have a set 50-step process to check for damage, and if it checks out, then it's always clear. With mules you'd have to give each one individual care. Surgery? Or just put down every one with a spot of blood from a potential fracture wound?
- Robots scale at will. If you're going to move 10000 men through a very rocky area, you can simply airlift as many robots as you want at will. Having as many mules as you want, when you want it, is a lot harder.
Basically the army is all about systems of doing things. Drills etc. are all standardised. Robots fit perfectly in a context like that, but mules quite badly.
Note that military and law enforcement that use animals always have a dedicated handler as a separate job. That lets this person deal with all the complexities of the animal.
It's funny how when contractors are involved a $500 live mule mutates into a multimillion dollar robotic mule that takes a team to maintain. Live mules self replicate and can live off cheap forage instead of expensive fuel and heal themselves and don't need mechanics. The robots look cool and do a good job but a live mule can still out perform one in every category from endurance to load they can carry and they don't need a factory to make one just two horny mules.
Give that puppy three Kerberos heads and train him in Michael Vick's Bad Newz Kennels. He should snarl, spit fire and rabidly foam at the mouth at soldiers' commands. Chainsaw saber-tooth fangs and Ginsu claws are a must.
When the local yokels see the soldiers on patrol with the Hound of the Devil, it will scare the Bejesus out of them, and they will skedaddle, like their asses were on fire.
David Blaine could ride the donkey, and perform bizarre street magic tricks that weird out the locals. The insurgents will be like totally convinced that their enemies have evil supernatural powers. Suicide bomber volunteer rates will plummet:
"I ain't dying near those goddamned evil bastards! They'll be takin' my soul right back with them straight to Hell!"
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Darpa figures that it's illogical to make a soldier hand over her rucksack to a robotic beast of burden if she's then got to be preoccupied with 'joysticks and computer screens' to guide it forward.
To me it is more logical to make a biped humanoid walker to carry burden, follow, imitate, and draw enemy fire from real human onto itself. Hopefully, this robo-shadow should also double as exoskeleton to the soldier, but soldier should have control it through another, "movement pickup" suit to enable simple remote control of robot when it is on its own. When following soldier over complicated terrain, simple time delayed imitation algorithm could allow robot to keep in step.
When asked to come up with a "headless companion to carry equipment and aid our marines when out on duty" the first suggestion was this
What all you nay-sayers forget is that this is only the very beginning of (debatable) usefulness. What comes out of this research over the next 10, 30 or 50 years, however, may prove surprising, and not just for how far this "mule" has come, but what other technologies it throws off along the way.
--Udo.
Or a forest with no roads or a rocky slope or 101 other types of terrain where wheels are useless.
The point is that for some things animals are still better than mechanised vehicles, even ones with tracks or artificial legs.
On here - if its not a tech solution its not a solution. The fact that the afghans are still using donkeys very effectively and cheaply should tell the US military something , but then they wouldn't be able to waste a few billion quid on a something that is to a donkey what a water pistol is to an AK47.
Or maybe its all down to pressure by PETA.
Like a lot of Kipling's verse, it starts off on a positive note and then the anti-war bit comes in at the end. But see the section for the "screw-gun mules".
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Artillery was pulled by horses and loaded on mules until well into the 20th Century. WW1 was a terrible bloodbath of innocent animals as well as people. In WW2, Germany reserved oil for critical military applications (like the ineffective V-weapons) and a lot of horses were still used. We have actually become slightly more civilised.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
It's usually political unintelligence that is at the root of the problem. The Army has to do the stupid things that keep politicians believing they are in control. It was the military that didn't want to invade Iraq, but chimp and dick overrode them.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
mechanised vehicles are being improved all the time, you can laugh at Big Dog, but it's just a prototype, it will get better very fast.
It takes 11 to 14 months, the war would be over by then.
so that I can mod you up. Well said.
Human history is full of headless commanders-in-chief, who will ever care about a headless mule ?!?
I would rather have 2 zombies with their arms and jaw removed to carry my gear.
sudo make me a sandwich
and can work without a constant supply of gasoline (unlikely), would be desirable too.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
It has written "Shoot me" on the head, Ah wait, It does not has a head to start with!
mmmmm.....
"Holy shit! That thing's real?!?!?"
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
How long until we see a mk 19 or a 50 cal machine gun mounted to one of these?
I do not approve of such spending.... there are netter thing to spend tax payer money on. i.e. http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/mods/theme_a/interact/www.worldgame.org/wwwproject/index.shtml
This is a republic where all voices are heard and representiotives representing the taxpayers but how are they to know what or how to represent if the taxpayers have no voice in ho to use the taxes each personally pay?
Open sopurce software doesn't work the way the US corrupted politicaly system does. If it did it'd be seriously in debt.
Mount a gun on that thing. It's simply a matter of time.
Sounds like a very expensive donkey/mule replacement. Why not just use real animals?
I completely agree. In WWII, american scientists trained pigeons to steer bombs toward targets. One or more pigeons would actually be placed in a bomb and peck on a clear disc that would actuate the bombs fins. Training was fairly straight forward and their accuracy was better than anything else available at the time, including radar (although radar was still fairly new). The project was ultimately disbanded because the military wasn't interested.
Does the LS3 work after being shot up?
Why not? It could be fairly armored to take most machine gun fire without damage.
Silly comparison.
I agree. It's absurd to think a mule is anywhere near as robust in taking fire as something made of metal.
The kinds of animals that locals use can be used locally, by definition.
Most locals are not under fire often.
It would make the US troops seem more human
That is a good point, but it's the only thing better about using animals.
It also increases you need for supplies (though possibly not more than the need for some sort of fuel for the robot would).
But, the key is that if there was a need for LS3, then the US would already be using pack animals.
They are, it's called "infantry".
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
From TFA:
> The robot's squad leader can issue 10 basic commands to tell the robot to do such things as
> stop, sit, follow him tightly, follow him on the corridor, and go to specific coordinates.
How about commands like: roll over, beg, shake hands, speak and shoot that guy over there?
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Are those, like, soldiers?
So all the enemy has to do is shout "SELF-DESTRUCT!". Brilliant.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
They are soldiers! As far as I know the "warfighters" term came around during the 2nd Bush presidency, but I may be wrong.
I remember doing some work in the Pentagon at the time and everywhere there were signs about "warfighters". It's an asinine political terminology created to make everyone feel included when discussing the military. It would be like calling a programmer a "keyboardtyper".
For ages donkeys, horses, camels and elephants (and many other animals) have been forced into combat against their will. We used their survival instinct to not only make them carry our crap but to also fight to the death, sniff out bombs and all kinds of other things that they never signed up for.
For years DARPA has been running experiments on extra sensory perception and mental telepathy. They may have also communicated with animals and determined that they just don't want to be involved in our malicious behavior anymore.
They can take more than 1 bullet easily.
Not while doing anything rational. You have a pack strapped to that deer? If you did can you imagine it being easy to get to with the animal shot?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I've heard horror stories about that recently...
How long before they're weaponized. Just imagine a platoon of 20 or so of these things with machine guns and rpg's coming at you. I think the noise alone would freak me out.
Imagine trying to look inconspicuous with -that- thing trailing behind you -wry grin-. ,..Just about as bad as being backed by a regiment of bagpipers.
Next step: Armor, brush cutters, and the ability to fire squad support weapons. This will become a ground-based drone.
We solved this by putting the soldier on top of the load carrier.
Signed:
The Ancient Greeks, Persians etc
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."