Bear Robot Joins The Army

The mere thought of touching a military robot gives me the creeps! I usually imagine them as having guns and rocket launchers, not to mention the scary look.

So, imagine how thrilled I was to find out that the army might actually "hire" a sweet looking bear robot, which looks like a genuine Teddy Bear. Boys might say the army has gone mad!

Since sending medical doctors out in the line of fire to rescue wounded soldiers results in a larger number of casualties, the manufacturers created Bear to go instead. The Robot is said to be designed to serve a noble purpose, by removing the injured soldiers from the battlefield. It seems that a teddy Bear robot picking a man from a battlefield would draw some attention and serious laughs, and mean gunfire from the enemy. Poor Bear! It can even perform complex moves while lying down, low and out of the harm's way.

According to Daily Mail, the Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot, dubbed Bear can walk, talk and feel. The robot has fitted legs for rugged terrain and a pair of wheels for smooth surfaces. The computers are linked to the gyroscopes to adjust the position of the robot's lower body, if it is somehow about to fall over.

The same Daily Mail writes what Daniel Theobald, president of Maryland-based Vecna Technologies, which is developing Bear, told to the New Scientist: "We saw a need for a robot that can essentially go where a human can."

Anyway, if you're interested in the capabilities, you should know that this robot can carry 135Kg with only one arm, in case the wounded one is Hulk Hogan and resists while traveling on rough terrain. Pretty impressive, for such a sweet-looking bear.

The Bear is expected to be ready to fit field tests in 5 years. I just wonder if Spielberg knows about that?