Robots have long served as central characters in science-fiction tales. In the 1960s television series Lost in Space, the mechanical assistant assigned to the space-exploring Robinson family is known only as “the robot.” In the later Star Wars movies, R2-D2 and C-3PO help save human lives in between taking swipes at each other. In many visionary science-fiction stories, robots have been developed to serve man…and the day is rapidly approaching when that service may come on the battlefield.

The US military’s investments in automated weapons systems have reaped healthy benefits in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), but less so in their unmanned-ground-vehicle (UGV) counterparts. UAVs such as the Predator offer impressive capabilities in terms of surveillance and even strike capabilities. On the other hand, UGVs are still in their infancy, with limited run times and control distances compared to UAVs. Nonetheless, they are getting better and smarter, taking advantage of the shrinking size and costs of computing power.

BomBot is one of the truly practical UGV solutions. Developed by Innovative Response Technologies to “neutralize” improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the BomBot can drop an explosive C4 charge on an IED once it is discovered. Ideally, the BomBot drives away and the charge is detonated remotely to set off the IED. Under worst-case conditions, the BomBot is a casualty of the ensuring explosion—but a machine is sacrificed, not a human.

The TALON UGV developed by Foster-Miller received attention for its work at Ground Zero in the days following the attacks on the World Trade Center. Over 3000 of these robots have been deployed for military use, largely for surveillance, equipped with optical and night-vision camera systems. The firm has also developed a weapon-toting version of the TALON in the form of its Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System (SWORDS) UGV product.

UGVs and UAVs are often referred to as autonomous systems, capable of operating under their own programs. But current systems are remotely piloted, with user interfaces that often resemble modern warfare video games. In addition to advances in hydraulic and mechanical systems, future robotics weapons systems will require advanced in artificial intelligence in order to become truly autonomous, decision-making systems. Such systems could offer faster response times during combat than those controlled over a considerable distance, with the delays inherent to long-range communications.
In many of the classic robotic science-fiction tales, robots eventually develop sentience, as in author Isaac Asimov’s The Bicentennial Man. True, the current crop of UAVs and UGVs is far from that point. But the day may come when we can turn the battlefield over to our drones and watch from the distance.