This should be very interesting, I'm not clear on the relationships after their split but Hyundai has a huge reach across every sort of heavy industry you can think of. I found another article that says it is the motor division that is acquiring Boston Dynamics. I'm surprised the US allowed this, Boston Dynamics seems like the sort of company they would keep close to home.
> I'm surprised the US allowed this, Boston Dynamics seems like the sort of company they would keep close to home.
South Korea is a treaty ally with the US. The US has thousands of soldiers at bases in S. Korea. S. Korea is not a country the US has to worry about afaik.
Not trying to be rude but that is a very naive view on geopolitics. Look no further than NSA and who they spy on to see who to worry about (IE. everyone worry about everyone, like NSA spying on EU etc.).
The robots are practically weapons. Imagine the 4-legged one chasing you down like a large cat could, then pouncing on you. Imagine the 2-legged one with armor, relentlessly stalking you like Terminator.
In my (somewhat limited) experience, I'd be surprised is Boston Dynamics robots are, wholesale, on the list of export control. ITAR classification isn't usually an arbitrary designation, there's typically some aspect in particular that falls under the designation. For example, non-binary source code in the robots could have the potential for export control, but almost certainly not the physical robot itself.
As an example of this, many autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are subject to export control laws. This isn't just because they can be used in an explicitly military manner (one of the most common uses is minesweeping), but because the Inertial Navigation System they use while submerged has enough sensitivity to be export controlled, since that tech can be adapted to be used in missiles. So it's not the robot that's export controlled, but the INS system inside the robot. If you took that out, most of them could be sold wherever. I believe the same thing goes for a lot of satellite technology that's export controlled.
The robots Boston Dynamics build seem to be solving a different problem, the (very hard) one of physical adaptive control in real-world environments, but imho what I've seen doesn't line up with what often seems to the reasoning for assigning an export control label, whether ITAR, EAR, or even CUI, to most of the technology.
"... the Inertial Navigation System they use while submerged has enough sensitivity to be export controlled."
To further your point, if the inertial navigation system has low limits for max acceleration and angular velocity (i.e. can't be put in a missile) then it can still be accurate enough for this task without ITAR restrictions.
I'm far more worried about kamikaze drones with machine guns than I am about robot dogs. You can crank out 100 cheap and deadly flying drones for the cost of the smallest robot dog. The dog might be tougher, but it's much slower and easier to stop.
I imagine in the not-so-near future there will be fleets of mini drones seeking out soft targets.
Machine guns are overly elaborate. A bunch of < $20 drones from Ali express with an explosive tied on would do it. You would not even need elaborate radio-jamming defeating control systems, they just need to fly straight until they hit something then a tilt sensor or timer detonates them. If it’s one thing we learned from myth busters, it’s how much damage the concussion wave from a surprisingly small blast can do to anyone nearby.
BD robots could be easily defeated by a 50-cal bullet or an EMP or a sandstorm or merely by preventing them from recharging their batteries. Reality is not like the movies.
Reality is that adding armor is trivial, but hitting critical components (small parts) is not. EMP protection is standard for military systems. The military already deals with the logistics problems related to batteries and fuel. The preferred energy choice might not be a battery.
Consistent usage of dumb tactics is unlikely. The robots aren't going to just run across a huge open field, straight toward the enemy, with plenty of warning to set up a defensive 50-cal gun. They could leap through a window or low-quality wall, in complete darkness, while the target is sleeping.
Adding armor that blocks small arms fire is straightforward, although even this might add too much weight to a BD robot.
Armor that blocks a .50 caliber rifle bullet is a completely different story; a Barrett 50 round will go through an engine block. If such a round hit the robot anywhere, it would almost certainly disable it.
Detecting an approaching robot would be trivial with radar, IR (these things have to make heat), tripwires, etc.
Not sure what you mean about "setting up" a 50 cal gun; a Barrett 50 is handheld. Setting it up takes about a second. Although in practice a perimeter would probably be established in advance with robotic guns using closed loop feedback.
My point is that it would be a significant engineering challenge and at least an order of magnitude cost increase to design a BD-style robot to deal with even the most prosaic threats of a hostile battlefield. And the power supply would probably need to be a gasoline engine rather than batteries just for reasons of weight and endurance.
EMP weapons are quite difficult to build unless you have $100 and a modicum of engineering skill. And no, I won't google it for you because I like not being on the no-fly list.
They tried to sell that to DoD already and obviously did not meet their needs in this way. If they had, they would not be looking for a sale, I’d imagine.
I'm not sure if this is what you're alluding to, but that's literally the plot to an episode of Black Mirror. The robots are even clearly inspired by Boston Dyanmics
National security, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (Cfius), has gone as far as requiring the repatriation of Grindr after it approved a deal for it to go to a Chinese company.
It's interesting to question the presumption that it is acceptable to sell a company in a way that gives foreign control. Not every country allows this. China is growing very well with it restricted.
https://www.kedglobal.com/newsView/ked202012080011