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.

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.

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.

As part of an expanding programme of battlefield automation, the US Air Force has said it is now training more drone operators than fighter and bomber pilots and signalled the end of the era of the fighter pilot is in sight.

An international debate is needed on the use of autonomous military robots, a leading academic has said. Noel Sharkey of the University of Sheffield said that a push toward more robotic technology used in warfare would put civilian life at grave risk.

A group of scientists has gathered at Asilomar, California to discuss whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society’s workload. In 1975, a group of scientists met at the same location for a groundbreaking discussion on self-regulation of the emerging field of genetic engineering.

The development of mechanical soldiers and remote-controlled tanks and planes is changing war for ever - but the moral consequences have often been overlooked.