The United States is unveiling its latest tool to help protect the American people and safeguard the county's borders: robot patrol dogs.
The Department of Homeland Security is testing out the four-legged robots -- officially known as Automated Ground Surveillance Vehicles, or AGSVs -- for surveillance roles along the southern U.S. border.
"Don't be surprised if in the future we see robot 'Fido' out in the field, walking side-by-side with [Customs and Border Protection] personnel," the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a blog post.
The robot dog reinforcements are expected to help the agency better allocate resources and fill important capability gaps. The goal of the program is to leverage technology to multiply the Border Patrol's presence while reducing human exposure to life-threatening hazards, according to DHS.
"The southern border can be an inhospitable place for man and beast, and that is exactly why a machine may excel there," Brenda Long, Science and Technology Directorate program manager, said in the post.
The government has been working on the project with Philadelphia-based Ghost Robotics for more than two years. The company re-engineered a version of its pre-existing 100-pound robot dog, "breeding" the machine for exactly the type of work that the Border Patrol needs done.
"It is a rugged, quadruped robot. It traverses all types of natural terrain including sand, rocks, and hills, as well as human-built environments, like stairs. That's why you want legs, and not tracks," Gavin Kenneally, the chief product officer at Ghost Robotics, said in the post.
The dogs are equipped with different types of cameras (thermal, night vision, etc.) and other sensors (chemical, biological, radioactive, etc.) that can transmit real-time video and other data back to their human operators.
As part of Homeland Security's trial, the battery-powered pooches have undergone extensive training and use-case exercises in a variety of harsh environments and realistic scenarios, including simulated inspections at railyards and sentry duty in the desert.
The government said utilizing robot dogs as force multipliers is no different than using technology like semi-autonomous drones. The Department of Homeland Security plans to continue trials on the robot dogs in another step toward full deployment at the border.
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