An examination of the Army's current efforts to deploy unmanned ground vehicles into combat.
Governments around the world are rushing to develop military robots capable of killing autonomously without considering the legal and moral implications, warns a leading roboticist. But another robotics expert argues that robotic soldiers could perhaps be made more ethical than human ones.
Israeli military leaders have begun early planning for a new, robotic defense system, armed with enough artificial intelligence that it "could take over completely" from flesh-and-blood operators in the event of an all-out nuclear attack.
The South African National Defence Force "is probing whether a software glitch led to an antiaircraft cannon malfunction that killed nine soldiers and seriously injured 14 others during a shooting exercise.
The U.S. military will spend about $1.7 billion on ground-based robots in the next five years, according to figures reported by a defense analyst.
The author looks at the growing use of robots in battle and argues that it is "imperative that we create international legislation and a code of ethics for autonomous robots at war before it is too late."
A move to arm police robots with stun guns has been condemned by weapons researchers.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is creating automated kill zones around the Gaza Strip aimed at halting infiltrations by terrorists, arms smugglers and other hostile individuals. Now in final stages of operational testing, the "See-Shoot" system will add weapons to the network of overlapping sensors already deployed along the approximately 60-kilometer border separating Israel from the Palestinian coastal territory.
Updating Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics, a new set of laws has been proposed to govern operations by killer robots. John S. Canning, an engineer at the US Naval Surface Warfare Center, proposes that robot warriors should be allowed to mix it up among themselves freely, autonomously deciding to blast enemy weapon systems, but permission from a human operator should be sought for targeting humans.
Robotic air vehicles are beginning to replace some of the Air Force's manned combat aircraft. Soon, they will be handling a major share of the service's strike mission. The first steps in this transition already have been taken in the field of fighter-class aircraft. Classified projects now in development seem sure to cut into the manned medium and heavy bomber roles, as well.