Russian president Vladimir Putin appeared less than thrilled during a public presentation of an “android combat avatar robot” on the outskirts of Moscow earlier this week. Although the video only shows the robot riding an ATV at walking speed, it is reportedly capable of shooting a handgun accurately.
During the demonstration, the army robot discharged five shots from a handgun and hit the target each time. The machine was operated from a safe distance by an officer dressed in a sensor suit.
The project was developed by the Russian Military’s Advanced Research Foundation (ARF), the equivalent of the Pentagon’s DARPA agency, in collaboration with Android Technics. Its development began initially as a space industry program to engineer a remote-controlled robot for operating on board the International Space Station.
It was reinvented as a military robot, in which capacity it must be able to cover rugged terrain, drive vehicles and provide emergency medical treatment to wounded soldiers on the battlefield. However, after watching the video released by RT, it’s hard to picture it getting off that ATV’s saddle by itself, let alone do all those complicated things.