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Duane Benson
More than the threat of a fully autonomous robot going rogue, the idea of human ...
The future of military robotics
Emilie Kopp
5/24/2010 3:32 PM EDT
The Department of Defense expects to continue its heavy investment into creating various levels of autonomy for unmanned systems in battle-space awareness and force application tasks.
But the civilian population can rest assured that these robots will not become fully automated until legal rules of engagement and safety concerns have all been thoroughly examined and resolved; when pulling a trigger, human intervention is still required, and will remain required for a very long time.
Alterative flavors of military robots, particularly those that aid in protection and logistics, are playing an increasingly vital role in maintaining a competitive edge in national security. These robots are immune to fatigue, sleep-deprivation, lack of visibility and other performance hindering conditions, all the while performing tasks that are too dull, dirty or dangerous to warrant the risk of human life.
In order to help make the Warfighter more effective, the DoD expects to spend $8B USD on unmanned systems research, development, test and evaluation by 2014. Federal policies will attempt to ensure that all levels of corporations, including small-to-mid sized businesses, are guaranteed a fair share of the unmanned systems market.
Companies looking for a strategic advantage will look to the increasing variety and sophistication of commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies and open, intuitive design platforms to bring these rapidly evolving technologies together.
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Duane Benson
7/19/2010 7:23 PM EDT
More than the threat of a fully autonomous robot going rogue, the idea of human controlled robots being hijacked is of much greater concern to me. Over the next few years, most devices that we interact with will become more and more automated to the point that in ten years, our cars may operate more like robots than like a traditional driven vehicle. Think of a military scenario, where the enemy hijacks the battle field robots and, instead of the old-style strategic bombing back home, hijacks all of our cars and appliances. I'd call that much more likely unless we really come up with better general security methodology.
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