Will the robot dog "Benben" in "The Wandering Earth 2" appear on the battlefield?

During the Spring Festival this year, the Chinese original science fiction film "The Wandering Earth 2" was a hit, and the endless "hard technology" elements in the film made military and science fiction fans very excited. Among them, the cute intelligent robot dog "Benben" followed the protagonist up and down the sky and sea, and its performance was eye-catching and impressed the audience, which also made this type of bionic quadruped robot once again attract attention from all parties.

Four-legged landing has unique advantages

Bionic quadruped robots refer to special robots that imitate the movement of animals with feet. Compared with common wheeled robots, the four legs of this robot can use non-continuous ground support and choose discrete footholds to overcome obstacles when there are only limited footholds. Therefore, they can better adapt to a variety of unstructured ground and harsh environments, and achieve flexible movement with a variety of gaits. After decades of research, bionic quadruped robots have developed from simply imitating biological movement to having intelligent control and good environmental perception capabilities. For example, 3D cameras can enable robots to have an overall perception of the surrounding environment, and combined with movement capabilities, the robot can move smoothly; while laser radar helps robots build maps, flexibly avoid obstacles, and accurately reach their destinations; at the same time, voice sensors, pressure sensors, position sensors and other technologies help robots establish interactive functions; all of these make robots closer to their biological prototypes.

Caption: The robot dog "Benben" performs well in the film

Some studies believe that the battlefield terrain in the future will not be flat. Complex environments such as mountains, plateaus and cities will bring great difficulties to combat, making conventional wheeled and tracked combat platforms almost unable to move, and many heavy weapons and equipment cannot reach them. Since bionic robots have good terrain adaptability, they will provide more effective battlefield support and even combat capabilities in complex combat environments in the future. This will undoubtedly open up a new technical development route for unmanned battlefields, bring a high-tech revolution to future battlefields, and have an important impact on future combat forms.

A new helper in ground combat

In fact, relevant parties have long tried to integrate quadrupedal bionic robots into combat troops and explore the possibility of human soldiers fighting side by side with robots. For example, the "Big Dog" robot produced by Boston Dynamics in the early years was highly expected by the US military. In recent years, the US military has evaluated the "Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicle" (Q-UGV) Vision60 robot dog developed by Ghost Robotics. Vision60 is a medium-sized foldable leg robot that uses Google Brain as its gait control system and is equipped with integrated high-resolution optical, thermal imaging and infrared sensors. It can effectively detect external targets, and its maximum walking speed on four legs can reach 2.3 meters per second. It can also perform tasks across a variety of terrain environments. At the same time, Vision60 can input designated patrol routes in advance, and operators can use head-mounted virtual reality devices to use the sensors on the robot dog at a distance to effectively view the search area. One person can operate multiple robot dogs when necessary. In addition, the robot dog also has a function called "intelligent mapping". It can accompany combat personnel to the war zone and continuously map the surrounding terrain. It can even use special detection methods to detect potential dangers that humans cannot find (such as mines), thereby warning personnel.

Note: The US military has already started evaluating Vision60

It is not difficult to see that the four-legged bionic robot, as a new type of ground unmanned equipment, can meet the needs of more combat missions of the troops, so that the future army can better face the changes in the threat environment and adapt to the increasingly complex future battlefield environment. As the technology continues to mature, it will not be a fantasy to put bionic robots on the battlefield. They will not only undertake auxiliary combat tasks such as material transportation, but also be involved in major operations such as reconnaissance and surveillance, firepower strikes, and mobile assaults. Especially driven by the development of robot autonomous technology and interoperability technology, their autonomous combat capabilities and inter-system collaborative combat capabilities will continue to increase, thus giving the future army new combat capabilities.

Military Dictionary: "Big Dog" robot: Its size is comparable to that of a large dog, and its four legs completely imitate the limbs of animals, with a special shock-absorbing device installed inside. The robot is 1 meter long, 70 centimeters high, and weighs 75 kilograms. It can travel at a speed of 7 kilometers per hour, climb a 35-degree slope, and carry weapons and other supplies weighing more than 150 kilograms.

Produced by: Science Popularization China

Producer: Guangming Online Science Department

Author: Lan Shunzheng

Planning: Song Yajuan, Jiao Ziyuan