For years, we’ve been hearing that it’s just a matter of time the robots will take over humanity. Well, it seems to be happening sooner than later. Somebody has just strapped a sniper rifle atop a quadrupedal robot dog.
An image shared on Twitter by military robot maker Ghost Robotics shows a contraption that is made for a dystopian world seen in movies. “Keeping our [special ops] teams armed with the latest lethality innovation,” the image caption says.
A robot meant to kill
It’s basically a death machine designed to kill with precision on the battlefield. The image was filled with comments; while some thought it was cool, some think it’s a nightmare turned into reality. “This is sad,” one Twitter user commented. “In what world is this a good idea? I bet police is salivating at the chance to use these.”
There are still a lot of details unknown about this machine, but according to an Instagram post by a gun manufacturer Sworn International, the machine is named the SPUR (Special Purpose Unmanned Rifle).
“The [SPUR] was specifically designed to offer precision fire from unmanned platforms such as the Ghost Robotics Vision-60 quadruped,” reads Sword’s website. “Due to its highly capable sensors, the SPUR can operate in a magnitude of conditions, both day and night.”
Troubling new development
It’s unclear what level of autonomy the robot has or can it be controlled remotely. Besides, the main motive for creating this robot is also unknown. The four-legged robot is a sniper that can shoot 6.5 millimeter Creedmoor cartridges, rifle ammunition developed with long-range target shooting in mind. All in all, it’s a worrying development. Any robot with the ability to kill should worry us all.
Recently, researchers at Caltech developed a robot capable of walking and flying as well. The robot named LEONARD (LEgs ONboARD drone), or LEO for short, is basically the bottom part of a humanoid robot that has a drone attached on top of it.
