LS3 is a four-legged, all-terrain robot developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA and the US Marine Corps. It is designed to carry equipment and supplies for dismounted soldiers and Marines. It is essentially a robotic pack mule. The highly mobile LS3 can go where wheeled or tracked vehicles cannot: steep and narrow footpaths, forests, and other places that can only be traversed on foot.

NREC’s rugged, lightweight sensor head enables LS3 to follow a human leader while avoiding trees, bushes, boulders, walls, and other obstacles. It uses software developed jointly by NREC and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

LS3 is jointly sponsored by the DARPA Tactical Technology Office (TTO) and the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL). Boston Dynamics is the prime contractor; NREC and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are subcontractors.