AILAOSHAN MOUNTAINS, YUNNAN PROVINCE The leeches were the first thing the team noticed, but the robot did not care. As the biodiversity survey pushed...

AILAOSHAN MOUNTAINS, YUNNAN PROVINCE The leeches were the first thing the team noticed, but the robot did not care. As the biodiversity survey pushed deeper into the subtropical evergreen broadleaf forests of the Ailaoshan range last month, a four-legged machine walked point, carrying gear that would have broken a human back. In a mountain range where fog can kill, a four-legged robot just carried the gear — and the risk — for the humans behind it. The unit, a DEEP Robotics Lynx M20S, became the first embodied AI robot to complete a field scientific expedition in this notoriously treacherous mountain range, according to the China Association for Scientific Expedition, which organized the trek . For three days,...

AILAOSHAN MOUNTAINS, YUNNAN PROVINCE The leeches were the first thing the team noticed, but the robot did not care. As the biodiversity survey pushed deeper into the subtropical evergreen broadleaf forests of the Ailaoshan range last month, a four-legged machine walked point, carrying gear that would have broken a human back. In a mountain range where fog can kill, a four-legged robot just carried the gear — and the risk — for the humans behind it. The unit, a DEEP Robotics Lynx M20S, became the first embodied AI robot to complete a field scientific expedition in this notoriously treacherous mountain range, according to the China Association for Scientific Expedition, which organized the trek . For three days,...