Military robot
|
|
Military robots are being researched by first world militaries that have large budgets and political pressure to eliminate casualties, such as the United States. 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.
On the ground, robots have been deployed as mine sweepers and for bomb disposal. Also under research is 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.
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.
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 on anything stenciled with an AK-47 silhouette. Conspiracy theorists like to point out that the best use for autonomous militiary robots is "for things good soldiers just won't do" - such as large scale massacres of innocents in order to kill a few unidentified insurgents, or demolition of buildings occupied by noncombatant children.
See also
External link
- CMU's snooping robot going to Iraq (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04142/319740.stm)