Merciless robots will fight future wars: researcher

Merciless robots will fight future wars: researcher


Archive for the 'Defense Robotics' Category
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Mar 26, 2009, post by slesik
ASI Chaos Small Robot To Participate In Series Of Exercises


Autonomous Solutions announced that its Chaos small robot will be profiled in a series of exercises at Cobra Gold 2009 in Thailand. The Chaos unit that will be at Cobra Gold was built by ASI for the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), which has made it available for the exercise.

The Chaos robot will be operated by Marines in a series of scenarios in which robotic assistance will be beneficial. Engineers from ASI will be on-hand to provide support and receive feedback on the Chaos platform from operators.



robot-chaos-asi

Examples of these scenarios include route security, cordon and search, casualty extraction and logistical supply.



The Chaos robotic platform is designed to remotely access hazardous areas previously accessible only by foot, thereby reducing risk to personnel.



It is able to navigate over extremely rough, steep, and loose terrain with four independent drive tracks that can continuously change orientation a full 360 degrees.



The unique ability to alter its pitch, roll and yaw enables the Chaos platform to navigate surfaces too uneven for other tracked platforms.



With a high payload capacity and an available manipulator arm with a fifty pound capacity at full reach (72 in), Chaos can perform a variety of functions. Its base weight is low enough that it can be lifted out of a vehicle and deployed by two people.



As a JAUS-compatible platform, the Chaos robot also allows easy addition of a wide variety of sensors and other robotic payloads. Its simple, modular design affords easy field service, maintenance, and repair.



Cobra Gold involves the United States, Thai, Singaporean, Japanese and Indonesian militaries and is meant to improve interoperability, enhance security relationships, and demonstrate U.S. support for humanitarian and security interests in the Pacific.



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Mar 26, 2009, post by slesik
Merciless robots will fight future wars: researcher


Robots will be armies of the future in a case of science fact catching up to fiction, a researcher told an elite TED gathering on Wednesday.

Peter Singer, who has authored books on the military, warned that while using robots for battle saves lives of military personnel, the move has the potential to exacerbate warfare by having heartless machines do the dirty work.



“We are at a point of revolution in war, like the invention of the atomic bomb,” Singer said.



“What does it mean to go to war with US soldiers whose hardware is made in China and whose software is made in India?”



Singer predicts that US military units will be half machine, half human by 2015.



The US Army already recruits soldiers using a custom war videogame, and some real-world weapon controls copy designs of controllers for popular videogame consoles.



Attack drones and bomb-handling robots are already common in battle zones.



Robots not only have no compassion or mercy, they insulate living soldiers from horrors that humans might be moved to avoid.



“The United States is ahead in military robots, but in technology there is no such thing as a permanent advantage,” Singer said. “You have Russia, China, Pakistan and Iran working on military robots.”



There is a “disturbing” cross between robotics and terrorism, according to Singer, who told of a website that lets visitors detonate improvised explosive devices from home computers.



“You don’t have to convince robots they are going to get 72 virgins when they die to get them to blow themselves up,” Singer said.



Robots also record everything they see with built-in cameras, generating digital video that routinely gets posted online at YouTube in graphic clips that soldiers refer to as “war porn,” according to Singer.



“It turns war into entertainment, sometimes set to music,” Singer said. “The ability to watch more but experience less.”



Robotics designer David Hanson offered hope when it comes to making robots a little more human.



Hanson builds robots that have synthetic flesh faces and read people’s expressions in order to copy expressions.



“The goal here is not just to achieve sentience, but empathy,” Hanson said.



“As machines are more capable of killing, implanting empathy could be the seeds of hope for our future.”



Hanson demonstrated a lifelike robotic bust of late genius Albert Einstein that makes eye contact and mimics people’s expressions.



“I smiled at that thing and jumped out of my skin when it smiled back,” TED curator Chris Anderson quipped. “It’s freaky.”



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