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Robots Go Spelunking

Posted by michael on from the i,-robot dept.

anakog writes "Yahoo! News runs a story about robots being used by the military in Afghanistan to search caves. The article features a few slides with pictures and comments. This seems to be the first time robots are used as tools for combat, although the article does not say if they have encountered any resistance yet. There is no mention of the manufacturer of the robots, however, I am fairly certain that they are the PackBots manufactured by IRobot. I happened to visit Real World Interface (which later merged with IRobot) a couple of years ago and saw the PackBots' predecessors, which were called Urban Robots. The company had a contract with the Department of Defence. As the name implies, the military were envisioning to use the robots to scan buildings in urban areas back then."

7 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Can a Robot Commit a War Crime? by Dr.+JJJ · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The robots in this article appear to be remotely controlled by a human operator but I can't help think that over time these robots and their predecessors will be given limited autonomy to execute tasks, and perhaps even kill. So given that future (which I admit is unlikely), what happens if a bot fails to obey the oxymoronicly-titled but somehow accepted Law of Land Warfare? If this violation came to trial, who would stand accused of the crime?

    1. Re:Can a Robot Commit a War Crime? by Basje · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "The persons responsible should be the folks who designed the robot."

      I think this is the most ignorant I heard today. What you say is akin to saying dell would be responsible for me smashing someone's head in with this laptop. Or to saying that Einstein was to be held responsible for the Hiroshima bombing.

      Designers and manufacturerers are responsible for their products, but only as far as it's functionality: if it functions well, within their specifications, and not outside of those, that's it. It is (or at least should be) the responsibility of the person or organisation that uses/deploys them, that is responsible for the results. In that respect it's similar to a smart bomb.

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  2. Packbots Demo @ ALS Oakland by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was privledged to see the Packbot demo'd at ALS in Oakland last year. It crawled down the stage stairs, back up the stairs, then off the stage, a 3.5-4 foot drop! They had a video clip of it running through a small "water hazard". It was completly submerged, and all you saw was the wake. Rather impressive.

  3. Perhaps not the first time... by pease1 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    This seems to be the first time robots are used as tools for combat...

    In WWII, the German army used a remote control tank that was filled with explosives and driven into a target. A photo is here (about half down the page).

    While not a true robot (I think these were control via wires), they were used in combat a good bit, including attacking landing craft during the D-Day invasion.

    Another German tank, the Borgward IV was a surviable remote control vehicle driven by radio and was used to lay mines, telephone wire and the likes.

  4. Israeli sapper robot by woolite · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Israeli sapper robot in action.

  5. Discovery.. by Frank+of+Earth · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ..channel had a good show on robots and how the military would use them. Hermes looks like the robot they were demoing on tv. The soldier just grabbed it by the handle and flung it over a wall and let it go searching. It seemed really durable.

    They also had these awesome little spy planes that fit inside a briefcase. To launch it, they had a little air piston that shot it into flight.

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  6. Range must be limited by Hayzeus · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If they rely on GPS for navigation, the robots must not be able to get that far into the cave. For that matter, I imagine the video feed and wireless communications are a major limiting factor on the depth to which the robot can explore -- I know the robo-mining people have been trying to solve this problem for some time now. Sure, the military probably has some nifty alien technology and all, but a cave is a cave, and RF is RF. I'd guess the controller still needs to be reasonably close for this to work well. My own teleoperated robot is nowhere near as kewl (as the kids say) , but if there are enough requests, I'd be happy to install a grenade launcher.

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