Sleipnir distinguished Muria dies, and provides a verse: Davidson adds that the representation of Odin's steed as eight-legged could arise naturally out of such an image, and that "this is in accordance with the picture of Sleipnir as a horse that could bear its rider to the land of the dead." Ulla Loumand cites Sleipnir and the flying horse Hófvarpnir as "prime examples" of horses in Norse mythology as being able to "mediate between earth and sky, between Ásgarðr, Miðgarðr and Útgarðr and between the world of mortal men and the underworld." The "Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture" theorizes that Sleipnir's eight
Legged Squad Support System was approximately the shape and size of a horse. A stereo vision system, consisting of a pair of stereo cameras mounted into the 'head' of the robot, was integrated alongside a light detecting and ranging (LIDAR) component in order to enable it to follow a human lead and record intelligence gathered through its camera. The initial contract for the Legged Squad Support System was awarded to Boston Dynamics on December 3, 2009. The continued evolution of the BigDog led to the development of the LS3, also known as AlphaDog. The contract schedule called for an operational demonstration of two units