Military robots are

autonomous robot An autonomous robot is a robot that acts without recourse to human control. The first autonomous robots environment were known as Elmer and Elsie, which were constructed in the late 1940s by W. Grey Walter. They were the first robots in history ...

s or remote-controlled mobile robots designed for

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

applications, from transport to search & rescue and attack. Some such systems are currently in use, and many are under development.

History

Broadly defined, military robots date back to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

in the form of the German

Goliath tracked mine The Goliath tracked mine (German: ''Leichter Ladungsträger Goliath,'' "Goliath Light Charge Carrier") was a series of two unmanned ground vehicles used by the German Army as disposable demolition vehicles during World War II. These were the e ...

s and the Soviet teletanks. The MQB-1 Predator drone was when "CIA officers began to see the first practical returns on their decade-old fantasy of using aerial robots to collect intelligence". The use of robots in

warfare War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regu ...

, although traditionally a topic for

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

, is being researched as a possible future means of fighting wars. Already several military robots have been developed by various armies. Some believe the future of modern warfare will be fought by automated weapons systems. The U.S. military is investing heavily in the RQ-1 Predator, which can be armed with air-to-ground missiles and remotely operated from a command center in reconnaissance roles.

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the A ...

has hosted competitions in 2004 & 2005 to involve private companies and universities to develop unmanned ground vehicles to navigate through rough terrain in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

for a final prize of 2 million.

Artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during si ...

has seen promising research with an experimental weapons system named " Dragon Fire II" which automates loading and ballistics calculations required for accurate predicted fire, providing a 12-second response time to

fire support Fire support is defined by the United States Department of Defense as " Fires that directly support land, maritime, amphibious, and special operations forces to engage enemy forces, combat formations, and facilities in pursuit of tactical and ope ...

requests. However, military weapons are prevented from being fully autonomous; they require human input at certain intervention points to ensure that targets are not within restricted fire areas as defined by Geneva Conventions for the

laws of war The law of war is the component of international law that regulates the conditions for initiating war ('' jus ad bellum'') and the conduct of warring parties (''jus in bello''). Laws of war define sovereignty and nationhood, states and territ ...

. There have been some developments towards developing autonomous fighter jets and bombers. The use of autonomous fighters and bombers to destroy enemy targets is especially promising because of the lack of training required for robotic pilots, autonomous planes are capable of performing maneuvers which could not otherwise be done with human pilots (due to high amount of

G-force The gravitational force equivalent, or, more commonly, g-force, is a measurement of the type of force per unit mass – typically acceleration – that causes a perception of weight, with a g-force of 1 g (not gram in mass measur ...

), plane designs do not require a life support system, and a loss of a plane does not mean a loss of a pilot. However, the largest drawback to robotics is their inability to accommodate for non-standard conditions. Advances in

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...

in the near future may help to rectify this. In 2020 a Kargu 2 drone hunted down and attacked a human target in

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

, according to a report from the

UN Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

’s Panel of Experts on Libya, published in March 2021. This may have been the first time an autonomous killer robot armed with lethal weaponry attacked human beings.

Examples

In current use

* D9T Panda,

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

* Elbit Hermes 450, Israel * Goalkeeper CIWS * Guardium * IAIO Fotros,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

* PackBot *

MQ-9 Reaper The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) primarily for the Un ...

* MQ-1 Predator *

TALON Talon or talons may refer to: Science and technology * Talon (anatomy), the claw of a bird of prey * Brodifacoum, a rodenticide, also known as the brand Talon * TALON (database), a database maintained by the US Air Force * Talon, an anti-vehicle- ...

Samsung SGR-A1 The SGR-A1 is a type of autonomous sentry gun that was jointly developed by Samsung Techwin (now Hanwha Aerospace) and Korea University to assist South Korean troops in the Korean Demilitarized Zone. It is widely considered as the first unit of i ...

* Shahed 129, Iran *

Baykar Bayraktar TB2 The Bayraktar TB2 is a medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations. It is manufactured by the Turkish company Baykar Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş ...

, Turkey *

Shomer Gvouloth In Jewish religious law (''halacha''), a shomer ( he, שומר, pl. , shomrim) is a Jewish legal guardian entrusted with the custody and care of another's object. The laws of ''shomrim'' (pl. "keepers"; "watchmen") are derived from the Torah i ...

("Border Keeper"), Israel * THeMIS, Estonia * PLA robot soldiers, deployed on the China-India border

In development

*US Mechatronics has produced a working automated sentry gun and is currently developing it further for commercial and military use. *, a four-wheeled robot outfitted with several cameras, radar, and possibly a firearm, that automatically performs random or preprogrammed patrols around a military base or other government installation. It alerts a human overseer when it detects movement in unauthorized areas, or other programmed conditions. The operator can then instruct the robot to ignore the event, or take over remote control to deal with an intruder, or to get better camera views of an emergency. The robot would also regularly scan radio frequency identification tags (RFID) placed on stored inventory as it passed and report any missing items. *Tactical Autonomous Combatant (TAC) units, described in Project Alpha study ''Unmanned Effects: Taking the Human out of the Loop''. * Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System is an experimental robotic weapons system being developed by the U.S. Army since 2005. It consists of a remotely operated

sniper rifle A sniper rifle is a high-precision, long-range rifle. Requirements include accuracy, reliability, mobility, concealment and optics for anti-personnel, anti-materiel and surveillance uses of the military sniper. The modern sniper rifle is a port ...

attached to an unmanned autonomous helicopter. It is intended for use in urban combat or for several other missions requiring

sniper A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...

s. Flight tests are scheduled to begin in summer 2009. * The "Mobile Autonomous Robot Software" research program was started in December 2003 by

the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...

who purchased 15 Segways in an attempt to develop more advanced military robots. The program was part of a $26 million Pentagon program to develop software for autonomous systems. * ACER *

Atlas (robot) Atlas is a bipedal humanoid robot primarily developed by the American robotics company Boston Dynamics with funding and oversight from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The robot was initially designed for a variety of ...

Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot The Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (BEAR) is a remotely controlled robot developed by Vecna Robotics for use in the extraction of wounded soldiers from the battlefield with no risk to human life. The humanoid robot uses a powerful hydraulics ...

* Dassault nEUROn (French UCAV) *

Dragon Runner Dragon Runner is a military robot built for urban combat. At 20 pounds (9 kg) it is light enough to be carried and thrown. The original project was funded by the United States Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory in conjunction with Carne ...

MATILDA Matilda or Mathilda may refer to: Animals * Matilda (chicken) (1990–2006), World's Oldest Living Chicken record holder * Matilda (horse) (1824–1846), British Thoroughbred racehorse * Matilda, a dog of the professional wrestling tag-team The ...

MULE The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two po ...

(US UGV) *

R-Gator The iRobot R-Gator is an unmanned robotic platform from iRobot Corporation and John Deere. The robot is built upon Deere's M-Gator currently in use by the US Military. The R-Gator can operate autonomously, performing perimeter patrol and oth ...

* Ripsaw MS1br>
* Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle, SUGV * Syrano * iRobot Warrior *

PETMAN Boston Dynamics is an American engineering and robotics design company founded in 1992 as a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, Boston Dynamics has been owned by the Hyundai Motor G ...

Excalibur unmanned aerial vehicle The Aurora Excalibur was an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by Aurora Flight Sciences between 2005 and 2010 capable of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL). The design combined ducted fans and hybrid drive. A smaller scale model with a wing ...

Effects and impact

Advantages

Autonomous robotics would save and preserve soldiers' lives by removing serving soldiers, who might otherwise be killed, from the battlefield. Lt. Gen. Richard Lynch of the United States Army Installation Management Command and assistant Army chief of staff for installation stated at a 2011 conference: Major Kenneth Rose of the US Army's Training and Doctrine Command outlined some of the advantages of robotic technology in warfare: Increasing attention is also paid to how to make the robots more autonomous, with a view of eventually allowing them to operate on their own for extended periods of time, possibly behind enemy lines. For such functions, systems like the

Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot The Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR) was a project by Robotic Technology Inc. (RTI) and Cyclone Power Technologies Inc. to develop a robotic vehicle that could forage for plant biomass to fuel itself, theoretically operating indefinit ...

are being tried, which is intended to gain its own energy by foraging for plant matter. The majority of military robots are tele-operated and not equipped with weapons; they are used for reconnaissance, surveillance, sniper detection, neutralizing explosive devices, etc. Current robots that are equipped with weapons are tele-operated so they are not capable of taking lives autonomously. Advantages regarding the lack of emotion and passion in robotic combat is also taken into consideration as a beneficial factor in significantly reducing instances of unethical behavior in wartime. Autonomous machines are created not to be "truly 'ethical' robots", yet ones that comply with the laws of war (LOW) and rules of engagement (ROE). Hence the fatigue, stress, emotion, adrenaline, etc. that affect a human soldier's rash decisions are removed; there will be no effect on the battlefield caused by the decisions made by the individual.

Risks

Human rights groups and NGOs such as

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ...

and the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots have started urging governments and the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

to issue policy to outlaw the development of so-called "lethal autonomous weapons systems" (LAWS). The United Kingdom opposed such campaigns, with the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

declaring that "international humanitarian law already provides sufficient regulation for this area". In July 2015, over 1,000 experts in artificial intelligence signed a letter calling for a ban on autonomous weapons. The letter was presented in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

at the 24th

International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence The International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) is the leading conference in the field of Artificial Intelligence. The conference series has been organized by the nonprofit IJCAI Organization since 1969, making it the oldest pr ...

(IJCAI-15) and was co-signed by Stephen Hawking,

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The B ...

Steve Wozniak Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname "Woz", is an American electronics engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, inventor, and entrepreneur, technology entrepreneur. In 1976, with business partner Steve ...

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, debi ...

co-founder Jaan Tallinn and Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis, among others.

Psychology

American soldiers have been known to name the robots that serve alongside them. These names are often in honor of human friends, family, celebrities, pets, or are eponymic. The 'gender' assigned to the robot may be related to the marital status of its operator. Some affixed fictitious medals to battle-hardened robots, and even held

funeral A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect ...

s for destroyed robots. An interview of 23 explosive ordnance detection members shows that while they feel it is better to lose a robot than a human, they also felt anger and a sense of loss if they were destroyed. A survey of 746 people in the military showed that 80% either 'liked' or 'loved' their military robots, with more affection being shown towards ground rather than aerial robots. Surviving dangerous combat situations together increased the level of bonding between soldier and robot, and current and future advances in

may further intensify the bond with the military robots.

In fictional media

Pictures

File:UGV TALON.jpg, UGV TALON Gen. IV (USA) File:PIRANYA_UGV.jpg, UGV "PIRANYA" (Ukraine) File:TypeX_RCV.jpg, Type-X (Estonia) File:THeMIS 5th generation UGV.jpg, THeMIS (Estonia) File:Боевой многофункциональный робототехнический комплекс Уран-9 - Международного военно-технического форума АРМИЯ-2016 01.jpg, Uran-9 (Russia) File:%D0%A0%D0%9E%D0%9A_%D0%91%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BA_%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%82_%D0%9F%D0%92%D0%9E.jpg, Berserk (Belarus) File:Sea Hunter gets underway on the Willamette River following a christening ceremony in Portland, Ore. (25702146834).jpg,

Sea Hunter ''Sea Hunter'' is an autonomous unmanned surface vehicle (USV) launched in 2016 as part of the DARPA Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel ( ACTUV) program. The ship was christened 7 April 2016 in Portland, Oregon. It was built ...

(USA)

References

External links

"Biomass military robot in development"

EATR: Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot
- Phase II Project

Ethical and legal concerns

Gerhard Dabringer (Hg.), Ethica Themen: Ethical and Legal Aspects of Unmanned Systems. Interviews, Wien 2010

Public Say It's Illegal to Target Americans Abroad as Some Question CIA Drone Attacks, according to Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll
- February 7, 2013
The future of warfare: Why we should all be very afraid
(2014-07-21), Rory Tolan, ''

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon ( ...

''
Archive on air wars
''Geographical Imaginations''
Logical Limitations to Machine Ethics, with Consequences to Lethal Autonomous Weapons
Also discussed in
Does the Halting Problem Mean No Moral Robots?

Robots in War: Issues of Risk and Ethics
- 2009

Organizations

United States Joint Forces Command website: "Leading the transformation of the U.S. military"

irobot.com
builder of the PackBot and the

systems
Boston Dynamics
builder of

BigDog BigDog is a dynamically stable quadruped military robot that was created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics with Foster-Miller, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station. It was funded by DARPA, but the pro ...

News articles/press releases

USJFC: 'Robotics to play major role in future warfighting'

Robots help deal with hazards, emergencies and disasters (

International Electrotechnical Commission The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; in French: ''Commission électrotechnique internationale'') is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and ...

, July 2011)
"War robots still in Iraq"
DailyTech, April 17, 2008
New Model Army Soldier Rolls Closer to Battle
(SWORDS)

TWG Military Robots
*

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

'
snooping robot going to Iraq

*
As Wars End, Robot Field Faces Reboot
April 11, 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Military Robot Russian inventions Soviet inventions Weapons