Posted on September 02, 2009 by Nancy Houser

The United States Defense Department is preparing to shape–or re-shape–the minds of live puppies in new testing procedures at a cost of millions of dollars. This will exclude the training of what they consider inadequate ‘oh-so-passe human trainers who fail in their training by demonstrating archaic methods such as human affection,  according to Katie Drummond’s Wired article “Darpa Wants Puppy-Training Machines“.

The stated goal of the military is to “….seek  proposals to create a portable gadget that “automates the training of complex behaviors in animals without human intervention.” We wonder if they will be using pit bull puppies for their latest insane venture? Hmmm…this makes one wonder what is the difference between Vicks and DARP in training dogs to fight.

DARPA, US MILITARY “MAD SCIENTIST” DIVISION

DARPA, the military’s agency referred to as the mad scientist of the Department of Defense, actually stands for the U.S. Military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It is  primarily responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military.

Originated since 1958,  DARPA was established in 1958 as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik during 1958, with the mission of keeping U.S. military technology more sophisticated than that of the nation’s potential enemies. In 1972, the name was changed to DARPA, then back again in 1993 to ARPA, and then back to DARPA in 1996. We assume they are about due to go back to  ARPA real soon….and how they got from Russian sputniks to dogs in the past 51-1/2 years we will never know…but they have a very spooky reputation for being ‘way out there with their research.

DARPA’S DOG SOLDIERS

DARPA is planning on using “automated mammalian training devices”…a million dollar word for computer-trained dog soldiers, as they are more subservient creatures than human soldiers and perfectly loyal to their trainer/owner. Presently, DARPA is working on a future plan to replace every last military staffer with such a creature or a computer base with three accomplishments in mind:

• The dog soldier will recognize discrimination of objects, verbal commands and olfactory clues.

• The dog soldier will be able to retrieve and transport objects between locations.

• The dog soldier will be able to associate human vocabulary with object of actions.

One of the BuzzFlash comments on the Wired story had this to say about Darpa’s big plan: “Odd as it might seem, apartheid South Africa attempted to use dogs mated with Russian red wolves to guard their perimeter in their campaigns into Angola and the like. The crazy things would tear into their handlers as well as any enemy and were totally unmanageable. What is the likelihood guard dogs trained by machines would be more pleasant?”

DARPA’S LITTLE DOG ROBOTS

DARPA has worked on little dog robots to do attempt the same training exercises, handing out a series of $600-800,000 contracts to contractors to try to teach “Little Dog” drones to walk–weighing in at 6.6 pounds and 10.6-inches long.

During the 15-month first phase of the “Learning Locomotion” project, Darpa wants the pooches to be able to travel .6 of an inch per second, and scale obstacles about 2.5 inches tall. For Phase II, those numbers should go up to approximately 3.8 inches and 5.7 inches, respectively.

That may not sound like much. Bu the drones will have to be smart enough that that can “learn ‘on-the-fly’ how to traverse new obstacle types,” Darpa tells researchers. “Government tests will measure the ability of the performer systems to learn from experience.” (Wired)

VIDEO: DARPA’s Little Dog robot

VIDEO: DARPA’s  Larger Dog robot

But there is more to this story:

Flesh and bone triumphed in the first ever man-versus-machine battle of brawn – an arm wrestling contest between robots and humans in California on Monday.

The champion, beating all three robotic arms each in matter of seconds, was a 17-year-old girl called Panna Felsen, a high school student from San Diego, US.

The contest was set up by Yoseph Bar-Cohen at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena, California, US, in an attempt to encourage the development of polymer-based artificial muscles… The ultimate aim is to have an artificial arm beat the world’s strongest person, says Bar-Cohen. But for now he wanted to make the challenge slightly more attainable which is why Panna, a self-confessed wimp, was chosen to represent humanity.

Despite her lack of strength, training and technique, she was able to conquer the first arm… in just 24 seconds. Following this, and a pep talk from an arm wrestling expert, it took her just four seconds to beat the second arm and three seconds for her to win the last match.

Darpa is

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