A military research institute demonstrated three versions of a four-legged robot, one of them armed, for possible duty on remote outposts the coast guard struggles to staff.
Taiwan’s main weapons-development institute put three robot dogs through their paces on Monday, presenting them as a possible answer to a hard problem: how to keep watch over tiny, far-flung islands in the South China Sea without sending many more people to live on them.
The National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, which is military-owned, demonstrated three versions of a four-legged robot built by Ghost Robotics, a US supplier of quadruped machines, according to Reuters.
The institute has fitted its own equipment to the robots for three roles: reconnaissance, surveillance, and firepower. The last of those carries a gun mounted on its back, which is the detail that tends to draw the eye, and the one that places these machines in the contested territory between a patrol tool and a weapon.
Ghost Robotics, unlike some rivals, has not barred the weaponisation of its quadrupeds, which is part of why its machines have found their way into military programmes that Boston Dynamics’ terms would not permit. Taiwan’s marines have said there is a pressing need for robots that can handle beach and coastline patrols and inspections in the Spratlys and the Pratas, the two island groups at issue.
