Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/28/watch-a-blowtorch-wielding-robodog-kill-weeds.html
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I prefer goats.
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Here’s hoping that there’s a good low battery sensor which turns off the blowtorch (and maybe stomps out ancillary burning verge) before the robodog shuts down. (these robodogs have relatively low active battery capacity given that they’re required to ferry around their massive battery above legs rather than more efficient wheels which only need to overcome added forward friction)
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I bet they stuck a blowtorch on it, and then tried to think of a peaceful (exc)use for it. They’re still trying to think up one for the hole-making dog that takes NATO rounds.
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I’d be a little surprised; in this case.
The Movies have done a lot to conflate propane torches and flamethrowers(mostly because the safety and liability considerations of something that puffs a propane flame a few meters at most are way more favorable for production purposes); but they are pretty distinct hardware. Also hardware that(thanks to persistently short range vs. just about anything else; and the tendency of people who strongly object to being burned alive to target it first if they possibly can) has persistently been the target of replacement efforts built around incendiary or thermobaric rockets rather than flamethrowers(like the M202 or Mk 153 with ‘novel explosive’).
That’s not to say that I suspect it of necessarily being a project of pure practicality rather than someone throwing some OpenCV at the task of making building incendiary robots into an agricultural research project because incendiary robots are cool; but I suspect that the guys slapping warheads on drones like their lives depend on it, because they do, would be deeply skeptical of this vs. the fairly basic consumer FPV racing drone variant that zips through your window at a 100mph and detonates.
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Okay, so besides the one job mentioned there, what else are they good for?
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Bad things bad people would do with them given the chance and opportunity.
But hey, robodogs! Am i right? 
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I bet the tech bro oligarchs with their “Gray” San Francisco would love to use blowtorch robodogs to move-along sidewalk residents. A flamethrower would be a bit much even for them, probably.
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If the police don’t use the robodogs as flamethrowing murderbots, some bad people might!
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A weed is only a plant that grows where you don’t want it.
I don’t see any weeds here.
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Meet my arson bot - I call it Havoc.
Brings to mind this:
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