Akta

©

I have found some very interesting articles on National Geographic News by Brian Handwerk. He writes about robots and military (GYRE link).

The military robots currently available, however, are not nearly as sophisticated as those that are sometimes portrayed by Hollywood films. "We're probably 10 to 20 years behind the least sophisticated system you'd see in something like Terminator 3," Robin Laird said. "But we're getting there."

Fighting robots are currently in development for land, sea, and air use.
Once the fantasy of science fiction, battlefield robots are now a reality.

"The whole idea is to take the war fighter out of harm's way," said Robin Laird. He is supervisor of the Unmanned Systems Branch of the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) in San Diego.

"In my mind, someday we'll be doing battle with robots—not killing people," said Laird, whose program serves all four branches of the U.S. military.

Snakelike robots may also soon fight terrorism, save lives, and make repairs on everything from battleship engines to the human body. Sound like science fiction? New research is bringing these incredible possibilities closer to reality. A leading researcher behind this endeavor is Howie Choset, a mechanical engineer and roboticist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His goal is to perfect what he calls the "snakebot." Choset's team is backed by a very interested party—the United States Navy's Office of Naval Research. The research branch has funded Choset's research since 1997, seeing promise in the application of snakebot technology to tasks as diverse as routine engine maintenance to diffusing bombs planted by terrorists.

The same company that makes those cute little household vacuuming robots now has a military robot that is equipped with a pump action shotgun capable of firing shotgun rounds and presumably killing enemy combatants (or anyone who happens to be standing in front of the 'bot). The robot is called the Pacbot, and it has already seen action in Iraq. The Pacbot weighs about 40 pounds, and is propelled by heavy-duty tracks. It also has chemical sensors that detect nuclear, biological, and chemical contaminants. It's currently being tested by the 29th Infantry Regiment at Fort Benning, Georgia.

U.S. Army tests battlefield robot armed with pump action shotgun; bring on the Terminators!
Of course, the big story here is not that robots are being used in Iraq or tested by the U.S. Army-- the big news is that they are being equipped with lethal weapons. Up until now, robots have always been limited to support roles, such as carrying equipment, sniffing out bombs, or performing remote detection of nuclear, biological, or chemical contaminants. But now there are Army robots with shotguns. Next up? Robot-controlled Hummers that can't drive straight, but can still shoot. Once they get the bugs out of the software, they'll even be able to limit their shooting to the enemy rather than just randomly firing off shotgun rounds at anything that moves.
Text and links taken from the Newstarget Network site (great place), the rest of the article is here. I sill look for pictures of these robots. The only links I found are dead 404 pages.

I suggest you go check this video advert shot in Johannesburg. Made by the talented peoples of The Embassy Visual Effects Inc.(the authors of the post image).