Science fiction sometimes depicts robot soldiers as killing machines without conscience or remorse. But at least one robotics expert today says that someday machines may make the best and most humane decisions on the battlefield.

Swiss scientists have continued their work on developing intelligent robots by evolving their behavior. Their robots have continued to evolve, learning how to navigate a maze, beginning to cooperate and share, and even developing complex predator-prey interactions.

Israel is developing an army of robotic fighting machines that offers a window onto the potential future of warfare.

The US Department of Homeland Security is fielding sensors on the border with Mexico in an $8 billion project called the Secure Border Initiative network. It will use a range of surveillance tools including remote-controlled optical and infrared cameras, ground surveillance radar and acoustic and vibration sensors to detect humans, bug-eyed robots with human-sensing radar, and magnetic sensors to detect vehicle movements and weapons.

When armies clash in the not-too-distant future, remotely-operated robotic weapons will fight the enemy on land, in the air and at sea, without a human soldier anywhere on the battlefield. The first robotic systems are already being used by the Israel Defense Forces and other armies across the world, and only budgetary constraints seem to be keeping science fiction from becoming reality.

The renowned ethical philosopher and animal rights advocate, Peter Singer, argues that as robots come closer and closer to achieving consciousness, humanity will have to consider how best to morally treat them and to what uses they can be put.

As the price of robotic technology drops and innovations expand their use into our homes and hospitals, scientists and legal scholars are convening to anticipate the legal, social, and ethical consequences of the coming robot revolution.

Peter Singer looks at how the latest revolution in technology and war or the “robotics revolution” is impacting centuries-old conflicts in the Middle East.

A robotics expert, a physicist, a bioethicist and a philosopher have founded the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC) to monitor the development of autonomous weapons and to campaign for the preventative arms control – like the regulations that govern nuclear and biological weapons – to be applied to robots.

In October, a small team of Silicon Valley researchers plans to turn software originally designed to search for evidence of extraterrestrial life to the task of looking for evidence of artificial life generated on a cluster of high-performance computers.