Saturday, December 28, 2013

Pentagon Sees Robot Warfare In The Future

A Scout robot holds a grenade during an anti-terrorism exercise in Rio de Janeiro, Nov. 12. Rio's police organized the exercise to test out its anti-terrorism capabilities before hosting the World Cup soccer tournament next year and the 2016 Olympic Games. Sergio Moraes/Reuters/File

New Pentagon Blueprint Sees Bigger Role For Robot Warfare -- Anna Mulrine, Christian Science Monitor

The Pentagon quietly released this week a technological vision for the next 25 years – a vision including drones and robots that will be ‘critical to future success’ of the US military, according to its authors.

At a NASCAR racetrack in Miami earlier this month, teams from NASA, Google, and 14 other groups of engineering gurus put cutting-edge robots through some challenging paces.

The aim was to see how well the robots could tackle tasks that may sound simple, but are tricky for nonhumans – including, say, climbing a ladder, unscrewing a hose from a spigot, navigating over rubble, and steering a car.

The contest was dreamed up by the Pentagon’s futuristic experimentation arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and senior defense officials were watching it carefully – well aware that the Pentagon is growing increasingly reliant on robotics.

Read more ....

My Comment: I can see history being made when military robots on opposing sides start to shoot at each other.

No comments: