The Large Robot That China Wants To Use Like A Yak

As much fun as it is to tease Robo-Yak, in many ways it’s the obvious next step in a series of important innovations. Autonomous and remote machines are widely agreed to be vital to the future of engineering. Drones, autonomous vehicles and AI control may get more American headlines, but there is a thriving and competitive market for machines that can perform simple, demanding tasks on the ground around the world. The best-known examples in the U.S. is probably the robots at Boston Dynamics, which DHL among others have already put to work. Chinese authorities have similar intentions for the yak. Its main applications include delivering important cargo over rough terrain and potentially serving as a ground-based military reconnaissance drone (via AutoEvolution).

Understood in those terms, the yak makes sense. Fundamentally, it’s a classic piece of engineering oneupmanship: it’s a bit bigger, a bit faster and carries larger loads than the biggest Boston Dynamics machine currently in production (via Futurism). In short, if you’re interested in engineering an autonomous machine to drag heavy things over hard ground, you might be wise to start with a yak, which already does that, over a forklift that doesn’t.

The replacement of beasts of burden with powered machinery changed global industry forever. Now, by looking back at beasts of burden, engineers may be about to change it again.