10 Ground Robots in Development and Testing for Military Applications

'Biohybrid' legged robots to use organic muscles

​DEVCOM is also working with Duke University and the University of North Carolina on “high-risk studies in biohybrid robotics.” The idea is to build robots that use living muscle tissue to keep up with human soldiers and be less reliant on conventional fuel supplies. The Army’s Legged Locomotion and Movement Adaptation (LLAMA) research platform and the U.S. Marine Corps’ Legged Squad Support System (LS3) are being considered for this technologies. Legged robots currently consume more energy than wheeled models, so increasing their endurance is key to their military usefulness.

The U.S. Department of Defense and militaries around the world are working to improve the endurance, usability, and autonomy of ground robots for explosive ordnance removal and other tasks.

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