China tests robotic dogs for future exploration beneath moon's surface

Chinese researchers are testing and training robotic dogs in preparation for future exploration beneath the moon's surface, an area deemed ideal for human lunar bases, the South China Morning Post said in its report published on Thursday.

A team from Peking University's school of computer science developed two specialized robotic dogs for the exploration mission and tested them in a cave in northeastern China that is "strikingly similar" to the lunar underground, the daily said.

The robotic dogs were used as "scouts" to conduct surveying tasks that humans cannot easily accomplish in narrow and nearly impassable passages.

Witnessing their performance in a "lunar-like lava tube environment" helped the researchers to improve the embodied intelligence technologies used in deep-space exploration, said Zhang Shanghang, a researcher at the university.

Zhang, who led the development of the two robotic dogs, explained that these models can find their way autonomously, avoid obstacles, create maps, and record high-precision 3D structures within caves.