When the United States’ Department of Homeland Security announced in early February it was training quadruped “robot dogs” to help secure the US-Mexico border, the department’s spokesperson described the nearly 2,000-mile region as “an inhospitable place for man and beast, and that is exactly why a machine may excel there”.
But, of course, people do live, work, and try to eke out a living in this “inhospitable” desert space – leaving one to question what, exactly, the robot dog is meant to excel at?
