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Could humanoid robots be heading for the battlefield?
Key takeaways
- Instead, the black shiny faceless Phantom robot is engaged in "free play", manipulating a bunch of coloured kids blocks.
- Later he pushes its 80kg steel-covered body around the room to demonstrate its stability and shows me how it walks.
- While many companies are building autonomous humanoid robots for factories, homes or companions, Foundation claims it is the only US firm developing them specifically for a broad range of defence applications.
Zoe Corbyn Foundation Robotics' Phantom is learning basic tasks I've come to an industrial space in a tech-heavy area of San Francisco expecting to see a menacing humanoid robot solider doing something combat-like: the future of land-based warfare, perhaps.
Instead, the black shiny faceless Phantom robot is engaged in "free play", manipulating a bunch of coloured kids blocks.
"We need data from it just interacting with its environment…[and] this is today's menu," explains Sankaet Pathak, co-founder and CEO of two-year-old start-up Foundation Robotics, which is developing Phantom for military and civilian applications.
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