World of the Bizarre

US firm is now selling a robot dog equipped with a flamethrower

By T.K. Randall
April 24, 2024

Image: Spot by Boston Dynamics (illustrative)
Credit: Jonte / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) While it's easy to imagine purchasing a robot capable of helping out around the home, carrying heavy loads or completing mundane tasks, one firm in Ohio has just brought out a robot that is definitely more like The Terminator than it is Bicentennial Man.

The quadrupedal contraption - dubbed 'Thermonator' - is essentially a robotic dog equipped with a fully functional flamethrower capable of spewing out a 30ft jet of flame.

What's more, you can actually buy one for the princely sum of $9,420.

The device is apparently legal everywhere in the United States except in Maryland.Interestingly, Throwflame doesn't actually market the robot as a weapon, instead maintaining that its main purposes include agricultural management, wildfire control and ice removal.

For many, however, it's likely that the Thermonator will be picked up as more of a toy than a tool.

The robot is actually capable of operating autonomously (which could spark some renewed debate about autonomous weapon systems), but it can also be manually controlled using a smartphone.

You can check it out in action in the video below.


Source: Mail Online

Tags: Robot