You make it sound like technology doesn't improve. Also, the dog bot isn't a replacement for drones but an addition. We can field them both if needed.
Self Propelled Gun/Rocket Launcher
- Thread starter FORBIN
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What technological improvement would make a robot dog a better reconnaissance platform than a quadcopter with the same technological improvements? Other than making the dog fly of course. Fielding both is fine as long as you aren't trying to use a dog for something a quad is better at, which is what I'm arguing against.
Try dense forest for one. It can improve mobility so it can transverse rough terrain better better. How about indoors? It also isn't a big flying target in the air and is smaller than a human so I definitely can be hidden on the ground with camo and a decent background. I'm looking further into the future where all of its kinks are fixed and more features added.
Try and put a man through a dense forest before you try your fancy robot dogs. You may not have been into a wild, unmanaged forest but there is no pleasant path to take, only large bushes and fallen trees everywhere. A man can barely walk through such areas, let alone a little robot dog. Forests with no growth on the ground are generally not found in the areas that China will most likely be using artillery.
And besides, we're illuminating targets for artillery. A small quadcopter will illuminate the foliage above the target just fine, no need for a robot to go illuminate the ground near the target, only for the shell to not be able to see the laser illumination. Because the laser is obscured by the dense forest's foliage.
Not sure about the sort of forest you're talking about but most dense forests I've been in would be a nightmare for a robot dog to navigate. Besides, quadcopter these days do pretty well in forests with collision avoidance and lidar, not to mention when applicable they can just fly over the canopy. Indoors would be a better use case.
You guys are arguing over which robot has a better laser pointer. Take it to the UGV thread.
I'm a Chinese mainlander who has experienced climbing mountains and walking forests. I'm talking 20 years ahead from today. Do you think we won't be able to solve such an issue? We used to say this regarding stairs. It's only a short time until we solve the next hurdle and put these into use. With how much effort China put into testing them, I believe they also want to try it.
As a rule of thumb: if a dog-like animal doesn't frequent the environment, then a dog-like robot won't traverse it well.
"Climbing stairs" (something humans do well) is something that robots can eventually do. "Traverse dense forests and undergrowth" (something humans do very poorly, even with height that can see above most undergrowth) is something that I do not think robot dogs can eventually do.
We have bots transversing vertical glass on highrise buildings which no human can do. Eventually, all technology will be able to achieve something well. We can argue the use cases in the future when they are deployed so let us agree to disagree and drop this.
We make a robot tiger then
