Boston Dynamics · robot dog
LS3
Legged Squad Support System
A larger, militarised follow-on to BigDog meant to follow a squad and carry about 180 kg of gear. Marines tested it in field exercises before it was shelved.
- Price
- —DARPA/US Marine Corps research programme, not sold
- Height
- —Not published
- Weight
- —Not published
- Payload
- 150 kgCarries more than 96%
- Speed
- —Not published
- Battery
- —Not published
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Why it matters
The largest of Boston Dynamics' military legged mules, designed to follow a squad with 150 kg of gear for 32 km.
Real-world use
Marines and soldiers took part in a two-year test cycle from July 2012.
Maker
Boston DynamicsCompany · founded 1992 · Waltham, Massachusetts, United StatesOwned by Hyundai Motor Group since June 2021 (80% stake bought from SoftBank for about $880M; SoftBank kept about 20%).
How it stacks up
Against other robot dogs that publish the figure. Pick a measure.
LS3 (Legged Squad Support System) carries more than 96% of the 27 other robot dogs that publish a payload. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Not published by the maker: height, weight, speed, joints, battery, price.
Public attention
A historic robot: no longer sold or in use, so it is not ranked against current machines.
- No Wikipedia article of its own yet
- No recent press stories listed yet
Measures how much people read and write about a robot, not how good it is. Measured 2026-10-13; same method for every robot. How it is measured
What’s inside
The parts the company has talked about publicly.
- Movement
- Walks on legs
- How it runs
- Supervised. It was designed to follow a squad leader semi-autonomously, with leader-following and go-to-waypoint modes under development.
- Actuators & motors
- Hydraulic legs powered by an engine (evolved from BigDog/AlphaDog); exhaust silencer made later prototypes about 10 times quieter.
- Sensors & vision
- Stereo cameras in the head plus lidar to follow a leader and map terrain.
- AI & software
- Autonomy modes: leader-follower tight, leader-follower corridor and go-to-waypoint; about ten voice commands tested in 2012.
- Other details
- Horse-sized: about 2.3 m long, 1.5 m tall, 362 kg; designed to carry 400 lb (180 kg) and travel 20 miles before refuelling. Could also serve as a mobile battery charger.
Lineage
Every Boston Dynamics (DARPA and US Marine Corps programme) machine in order.
RHex2001Research
BigDog2005Retired
LittleDog2005Retired
RiSE2006Retired
Sand Flea2012Retired- LS3 (Legged Squad Support System)2012Retired
Cheetah2012Retired
WildCat2013Retired
Spot (now called Spot Classic)2015Retired
SpotMini2016Retired
Handle2017Retired
Handle (logistics version)2019Retired
Spot2019Commercial
Stretch2021Commercial
Spot Enterprise and Spot Arm2021Commercial
Boston Dynamics also makes 5 humanoids. See every Boston Dynamics robot
Watch LS3 (Legged Squad Support System)
Made, sold and where
Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.
- Price
- Not publishedDARPA/US Marine Corps research programme, not sold
- How to get one
- No official buying page found
- Built
- At least two prototypes
- Sold or delivered
- not sold
- Where it is sold or used
- Boston Dynamics, Massachusetts
- Customers and pilots
- DARPA (contract awarded 3 December 2009) with the US Marine Corps; used by 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines at RIMPAC 2014; put into storage in late 2015
Sources
Figures come from the maker. Every link below backs something on this page.
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