In the event of a global and highly lethal flu pandemic, we’ll need to churn out millions of vaccines as soon as humanely possible. Not easy to do considering a true vaccine can’t be developed until the pandemic has already arrived. So it’s not surprising the military wants better vaccines that can be produced at blazing speed. Preferably ones it can grow.
Darpa, the agency that’s usually more concerned with four-legged robots and preventing pandemics than the contents of a soldier’s closet, has doled out $ 1.25 million in an effort to fully automate the sewing process. Eventually, the agency aspires to “complete production facilities that produce garments with zero direct labor.”
It’s only been three months since the Pentagon’s latest robot, one able to staple paperwork and answer phone calls with a single autonomous arm, showed off some of those amazing skills. Now, the freaky humanoid ‘bot is back. And this time, he has two arms. And a name.
Sure, the military’s got plenty of crazy robots in development. But only one of ‘em can take phone calls and carry your luggage — all by itself.
The last time we saw AlphaDog, Darpa’s newest four-legged robot, the big lug was flailing around in the lab. Now, however, AlphaDog’s been let off his leash.