Weapons and Kit

Robotic dog deployed to US border with Mexico

A robot dog that had been in the earlier stages of development last year has been given its marching orders for a major assignment.

The Ghost Robotics V60, which featured in Forces News reports in September, is an autonomous ground drone that goes by the name of Robot Dog – but back then, its future military potential was considered still a little way off.

Now, Robot Dog is being deployed to the US border with Mexico to tackle what the government has described as "non-environmental threats."

The autonomous ground drone proved hugely popular at last year's DSEI exhibition - the world's largest gathering of the military and defence community – which was held over five days at London's Excel Centre.

The team behind the robot wooed crowds as they demonstrated the mechanical canine's abilities in tackling different military tasks and obstacles, promising almost limitless humanitarian, security and even combat possibilities.

A Robot Dog on operations somewhere near the US southern border. Picture: Ghost Robotics.

The US Government said Robot Dog's deployment to the American Southwest region would "assist with enhancing the capabilities" of customs and border protection personnel, while "simultaneously increasing their safety downrange."

Dangerous obstacles for those who patrol the border.

The Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), research and development advisors to the US Department of Homeland Security, described the terrain of the American Southwest, where Robot Dog will primarily be deployed on this operation, as a blend of "harsh landscape, temperature extremes and various other non-environmental threats," adding that the region presents "dangerous obstacles for those who patrol the border."

An S&T spokesperson added: "The southern border can be an inhospitable place for man and beast, and that is exactly why a machine may excel there."

However, the deployment of the robotic dog by the Department of Homeland Security has drawn criticism from one influential human rights campaigner, who described its use as like something from an episode of Black Mirror – the fictional television programme devised by the comedian Charlie Brooker.

Moustafa Bayoumi, author of This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror, took to protesting in a column for The Guardian in which he said, "what we're talking about is the further encroachment of government surveillance on our daily lives."

He added: "Then there's the question of lethal force. These specific ground drones may not be armed, but Ghost Robotics is already infamous for the combination of robot dog and robot rifle."

Talking to Forces News, Ghost Robotics' Chief Marketing Officer Michael J. Subhan said that the company was "trying to keep Customs and Border Protection and other government personnel in the field out of harms way."

He added: "Pretty much the majority of use cases with our robot revolve around situations where unknowns exist and the robot can inspect and collect situational awareness without putting human life at risk."

Jiren Parikh, CEO of Ghost Robotics, told Forbes magazine he supports Ghost Robotics’ defence customers, such as the US Government, to outfit the robots as they see fit to keep people safe.

While these specific Robot Dogs are not armed, Mr Parikh suggested that robots of this kind in general were no more of an issue in terms of lethal force than, say, drones, since they still needed a human operator to control them.