Article courtesy of Barbara Opall-Rome, "Defense News"
Imagine an intuitively trained special missions operative endowed with 360-degree vision who works alone or in packs to breach high-risk safe houses and bunkers, ready to shoot to kill within a second of an officer’s command.
Unlike other small robots which carry no weapon at all, or much larger 250 kilogram-class systems designed to carry add-on remote firing stations, Dogo is integrally built to house a standard Glock 26 9mm pistol in its belly.
Dogo, revealed for the first time in "Defense News" by Barbara Opall-Rome, is named after the Argentine Mastiff, a fearless hunter trained to protect human companions. Dogo appears to be the world’s first inherently armed tactical combat robot.
That’s exactly what General Robotics Ltd., a high-tech firm tucked away in this rural community south of Tel Aviv, has developed with its trademarked Dogo, a 12-kilogram, pistol-packing killer robot for close-quarter combat and counterterrorism operations.
Dogo can be equipped with pepper spray, blinders or other less-than-lethal means of engagement, Gal said. And, like other robots, it relays two-way voice commands and can conduct remote hostage negotiations.
But in its market-unique lethal mode, Dogo fires off 14 rounds per deployment via the firm’s Ranger remote control unit (RCU), a proprietary man-robot interface that allows controllers from a safer position to aim and fire the weapon precisely where they point on an off-the-shelf touch pad.
Easily carried in one hand by fully armed infantrymen or special operators, the battery-powered Dogo intuitively climbs stairs, clears obstacle-laden terrain and maneuvers quietly indoors or underground for about four hours at a stretch.
Each Dogo features eight of the firm’s micro-video cameras - six elevated on each side of the system’s ruggedized tracks, for 360-degree vision - and two dedicated boresight cameras designated for firing the pistol.
General Robotics plans to formally unveil the system next month at the Eurosatory Exhibition in Paris.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 7, 2016
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