Military robot

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British soldiers with captured German Goliath remote-controlled demolition vehicles.

Predator drone

Military robots are autonomous or remote-controlled devices designed for military applications.

Such systems are currently being researched by a number of militaries. Already remarkable success has been achieved with unmanned aerial vehicles like the Predator drone, which are capable of taking surveillance photographs, and even accurately launching missiles at ground targets, without a pilot. A subclass of these are Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles, which are designed to carry out strike missions in combat.

1 Present use
2 Developments
3 Examples of systems in development
4 Systems in current use
5 Issues
6 Fiction
7 See also
8 External links
- 8.1 Organisations
- 8.2 News articles/Press releases

[edit] Present use

Bomb disposal robot

The term "robot" is often a misnomer in the present day to refer to these machines, since while a robot performs "autonomous or preprogrammed tasks" most "robots" in current use are in fact remote controlled by a human operator and have no automation or intelligence, due to the limitions of current artificial intelligence.

Robots are used increasingly in wartime situations to reduce human casualties, being used for a mix of both combat against the enemy and non-combat roles such as scouting and bomb disposal. At present stages robot casualties are less financially damaging than human, SWORDs taking $230,000 to produce while the average cost of a U.S. soldier from enlistment to internment is $4,000,000.[1]

[edit] Developments

the combat version of the Foster-Miller TALON, SWORDS.

Defense contractors in the USA are hard at work developing autonomous "robot soldiers", but most current models look more like tanks than humans. There are problems with threat recognition and response; some models will not shoot cows with guerillas crouched behind them, but will fire at anything stenciled with an AK-47 silhouette.

In December 2003, the Associated Press reported that The Pentagon had purchased several Segways, as part of a research program called "Mobile Autonomous Robot Software", an attempt to develop more advanced military robots.

[edit] Examples of systems in development

US Mechatronics has produced a working automated sentry gun and is currently developing it further for commercial and military use.[2]
MIDARS, a wheeled robot outfitted with a camera and possibly a firearm, that automatically follows a pre programmed route, around a base or installation for instance. It alerts a human overseer when it detects movement, or other programmed condition. The operator can then instruct the robot to ignore the event, or take over remote control to deal with an intruder, or to get better camera views of an emergency. The robot would also regularly scan barcodes of stored inventory as it passed and report any missing items.
US scientists at MIT are known to be "looking into building a mechanical super-fighter ... able to heal his own wounds, leap buildings, deflect bullets and even become invisible" which "won't be ready for at least 10 years."[3]
Tactical Autonomous Combatant (TAC) units, described in Project Alpha study 'Unmanned Effects: Taking the Human out of the Loop' - TAC robots are seen as being faster and more lethal than human soldiers, and able to work in more hazardous environments. This study, which was done in 2003, saw TACs as a reality by 2025.
ARV
ACER
ARTS
BigDog
Dassault Neuron
Dragon Runner
Goalkeeper CIWS
MATILDA
PackBot
R-Gator
RAAS
Syrano

[edit] Systems in current use

Foster-Miller TALON SWORDS units equipped with various weaponry.

Foster-Miller TALON (the weaponised version being known as the Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System or SWORDS)
RQ-9 Predator B
- RQ-1 Predator
Guardium

[edit] Issues

The implications of mastering and using this type of technology are wide, with the possibility of advanced artificial intelligence causing unforseen consequences (especially if weaponized machines are ever given AI on the level of sentience), the possibility of robots being hacked into and used against the owners or the possibility of simple machine breakdown leaving soldiers defenceless if robots are relied on too much.

In literature, a play published in 1921, 'Rossum's Universal Robots' by Czech writer Karel Capek, tells the story of how people built better and better robots until they finally built robots to fight wars. In the end, the robots decide that fighting is crazy, and take over the world. This idea has since become a common staple of fiction in books, films and television. It's popularity fueled by the common (but principally erroneous) belief that machinery is entirely physically superior to biology.

There are many advantages in robotic technology in warefare however, as outlined by Major Kenneth Rose of the US Army's Training and Doctrine Command[4]: "Machines don't get tired. They don't close their eyes. They don't hide under trees when it rains and they don't talk to their buddies ... A human's attention to detail on guard duty drops dramatically in the first 30 minutes ... Machines know no fear."

Baring hypothetical problems the present problems lie mostly in the control mechanism and means of locomotion. Artificial intelligence is presently too limited to provide significant tactical prowess in military situations and limited locomotive technology also degrades this. Present tracked robots could potentially carry more armor and weapons that people except perhaps in certain cases (see supersoldier, powered exoskeleton) but lack the speed and range of movements that human soldiers have. Human soldiers can improvise and make calls of judgement AI presently can't make, a human commander behind a robot could do the same but at a significantly slower rate which could count for a lot in hostage situations and counter-terrorism scenarios. An AI control machine would most likely simply not be able to defuse such a situation and in the worst-case-scenario might even open fire upon a hostage without hesitation. A potential error in the programming on or off the field could even cause devastating levels of friendly fire. This could potentially severely limit the application of military robots. Regarding AI it may become simpler to rely on wireless control though that would be subject to numerous mechanical and electronic faults (see lag) or even perhaps cybernetics.

Tracked robots also face other potential physical problems; humans can vault over obstacles, crouch behind barriers and cover, sneak up on an enemy through thick foliage, climb obstacles and perform dozens of different tasks by hand. Tracked robots can do none of those, the last ability could be mimicked but with only limited results; hands are simply too complex. A single human can also do all of the above while a robot (barring development of human robots, see android) would have to be specifically built for it.