The Marine Corps is experimenting with a robot guard ball called GuardBot, essentially a big tire body with a dome on each side of its spherical core.
GuardBot is being tested for its viability as an amphibious scout, and interestingly enough, its design was originally created with the idea to one day send it to Mars.
With its Mars aspirations on the back burner for now, GuardBot is being used for scouting missions in rivers and patrolling forward operating bases in swampy terrain.
At speeds of merely 6 mph on land and 3 mph in water, GuardBot isn’t a device to be feared because of its acceleration. GuardBot was built for safety and is capable of lasting upwards of 8 hours on one battery charge.
The odd looking dome-like sides of GuardBot are actually cameras, enabling the robot to look in completely opposite directions at all times. Pretty neat, huh?
GuardBot features a laser spectroscope to detect chemicals used in making explosives, accurate from up to two inches away, in addition to being able to capture videos and pictures.
