Will robotic dogs that can bite be considered illegal weapons?

Here in Germany we have some laws that makes dangerous, aggressive by nature, dogs not to be owned/sold/bought legally.

With minor dangerously dogs, one can make a dog's personality test, where the dogs are made angry on purpose. If they bark/behave (very) angry - then, you're not allowed to keep them.

It's a good solution. Dogs like caucasian ovcharka, with a very strong territorial behavior are way to dangerous to be owned by people. If I take a look at some dog owners, I have to think about who's owning whom actually. One of the caliper of an caucasian ovcharka is a deadly, uncontrollable weapon. Even experienced hands can't handle them properly.

So robo-dogs is a solution, because the personality is a matter of the firmware.

Normal dogs can be banned for bad behavior. Some places have limits on size and weight. How this plays out and what rules are in place vary by location but they can be taken by the authorities and potentially put down and the owner fined by the authorities and then sued by the victims. Even without bad behavior dogs are not permitted in some locations. The owner assumes culpability for the dogs actions.

If a robot dog is exhibiting this behavior I would expect similar results that may extend beyond the owner or operator and to the vendor and or whomever programmed the dog. This concept already exists if one thinks about it. I have a drone. My drone could have a bug that causes me to lose control or someone could take over control. It could fly to the airport and get in front of a plane that is taking off or landing. I would get in trouble with the FAA and the NTSB would try to determine what happened. I would then have to sue the drone manufacturer for damages and the authorities may do the same. The drone or all drones may be force recalled or banned or grounded if this became a regular occurrence.

A piece about robot police dogs I stumbled upon recently:

https://undark.org/2023/09/04/robot-police-dogs/

Not as theoretical a question as it looks!

Interesting kink in the legal system - is it a robot? is it a dog?

Perhaps not as important as, will a robot dog that can fire 45 rounds be legal? Fire a flamethrower? Release poison gas?

There's no reason a robot dog has to be hamstrung by what a real dog can do.