Darpa wants to get little mechanical puppies to figure out how to walk on their own, in the hope that one day, the drones will be able to run around with soldiers on the battlefield.

In the Learning Locomotion program, algorithms will be created that will allow the robots to learn how to move based on the experience of a legged platform confronting extreme terrain. Further, it is expected that these algorithms will be applicable to “agile” ground vehicles.

Darpa is planning on handing out a series of $600-800,000 contracts to try to teach drones to walk. And the robots the agency wants researchers to train are 6.6 pound, 10.6 inch-long “Little Dogs.”

Via Defense Tech.