While the final goal of armies should be the complete elimination of all armed conflicts, and a protection of peace, we’re sadly still (probably) centuries away from everybody shaking hands.
Until then, the next best thing is to have unmanned vehicles or robots do the most dangerous of tasks that usually put human life at risk. Up until the last few years, these robotic helpers have been quite small and even rudimentary, compared to the kinds of hardware modern armies have access to.
Meet the Ground Unmanned Support Surrogate, or GUSS for short, which is a kind of oversized six-wheeled quad that drives itself in a number of different modes. Its goal is to carry the wounded out of harm’s way quickly, while at the same time hauling soldiers’ equipment to the battlefield for them.
The video posted below shows GUSS at work during a training exercise recently carried out by the US Marines. There are also other videos on the web showing off its capabilities, this latest one being of the slow-paced variety.
By Andrei Nedelea