Robosoldier
'Robot soldiers' bound for Iraq
Eighteen of the 1m-high robots, equipped with cameras and operated by remote control, are going to Iraq this spring, the Associated Press reports.
The machine is based on a robot already used by the military to disable bombs.
Officials say the robot warrior is fast, accurate and will track and attack the enemy with relatively little risk to the lives of US soldiers.
Unlike its human counterparts, the armed robot does not require food, clothing, training, motivation or a pension.
When not needed in war, it can be mothballed in a warehouse.
However, the robot will rely on its human operator, remotely studying footage from its cameras, for the order to open fire.
According to Bob Quinn, a manager with Foster-Miller, the US-based company which worked with the military to develop the robot, the only difference for a soldier is that "his weapon is not at his shoulder, it's up to half a mile away".
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.. I still think it will end in tears.
posted by Mark at
22:52
4 Comments:
In short…one more way the US government to make US citizens feel better about having troops in Iraq. What the assholes need to do is take these soldiers down to Sri Lanka and have them locate and disarm all the exposed and hidden mines that scatter the tsunami-ridden countryside.
I think we will see much more of this sort of thing over the couse of the next ten or twenty years. Teleoperated vehicles such as this will probably be quite poor and cumbersome at first, and will only be practical when used in close combination with human troops. For example, a robotic soldier on its own could easily be dissabled simply by throwing a towel over its video cameras.
Of course once this technology is invented and developed to a reasonable stage of competence there's no going back. It's only a matter of time before despotic regimes start using them for "crowd control" (tiananmen square style) or terrorists get hold of one and drive it through a major city.
I like the part about "relatively little risk"! (That makes me feel "relatively" happy with the whole endeavor.)
I'm fascinated by the robotic part and simultaneously repelled by the application. Killing people from a distance is so much easier and more impersonal.
I'm also wondering how they can afford stuff like this when they've claimed a lack of enough funds to provide adequate armor?
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