Speaking of robot pack animals, the US Army will be sending approximately 20 prototype autonomous robot 'mules' that they've been testing to real-life army combat units (two brigade combat teams) for a year. If the soldiers like them and they work out, the army plans to buy maybe 5,700 of them.
There were originally 10 companies in the competition to satisfy this requirement, now that's down to four and soon it will be one. Apparently all of the robots being distributed to the troops will be this winning design (which hasn't been announced yet).
These aren't the robot dogs. They typically appear to have wheels (or maybe tracks in a few cases) so they might not be able to cross extremely rugged terrain. The specification is for each one to carry 1,000 pounds. They will help soldiers who are increasingly burdened with ammunition, batteries, weapons, spare clothing and all kinds of heavy stuff. They have to lug it all around when they are getting shot at and expected to be agile.
Apparently these robots will follow the soldiers or go where they are told to go. But what if the soldiers detect enemy soldiers up ahead and go into hiding to avoid being seen, but the 'mules' stupidly blunder out into plain sight?
It might be too complex a cognitive task to expect them to always know what they should do, so I expect that the soldiers will have controllers like TV remotes that can order the 'mules' to halt and be silent.
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army...this-year/