Is your image of a military-grade robot something with turrets and tank treads, and maybe a creepy red eye that helps it decide whether or not to waste you? You might be relieved, or equally creeped out, to see this clip of a robotic dog that DARPA has been developing for the US military being taken on some test-runs:

The AlphaDog can walk on a variety of terrains, carry up to 400lbs of equipment, is controlled by a touchscreen device and carries out functions like “follow the leader” (and perhaps a few more sinister ones like “sick the mailman”).

Though it has predecessors in Hasbro’s “iDog” and Bandai’s “SmartPet” (a stretch I know), the AlphaDog is innovative and unique in the military field, and I imagine that each AlphaDog will be “walked” through a good amount of terrains and obstacle courses before it starts trotting behind our boys in combat. Testing out the AlphaDog is certainly not something a treadmill in a lab is suited for.