I think the fact that the military is beginning to increasingly utilize robots for some of its dirty work can officially be filed under “BORING.” We’ve been hearing about pilotless drones that can fire Hellfire missiles for what feels like forever. We’ve been hearing about bomb disposal robots since S.W.A.T was a popular television show (and that is a long freaking time). Quick, if you have no idea what S.W.A.T is, go to YouTube for this retro enjoyment. That was such a cool show.
So, clearly, robots are not new on the battlefield. But this story is. The UK’s Ministry of Defence is taking things further with its goal to bring autonomous, information-gathering robots to urban warfare situations. You read that correctly:
Autonomous robots in warfare situations… Autonomous robots.
Now, that is science fiction coming to an urban area near you. These technologies will be in testing over the next few years, but the UK MoD hopes to develop robots that can identify potential snipers, enemy vehicles and other human threats, with a minimum of human guidance, and then report that information back to ground troops gearing up for an assault. The robots being developed include miniature unmanned planes and tiny helicopters equipped with high-definition cameras that will work in combination with ground units utilizing radar and thermal detection. They won’t be arming these robots just yet, which is probably very, very wise of them.
Story via BBC News
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