After Gutenberg

In the Spring, we learned about S.W.O.R.D.S. in Korea (Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems), now Slashdot, “for all your robo weaponry needs”, tell us that a Korean combat robot with six or eight extendable legs will move like an insect over uneven terrain, armed with various weapons and operated both by remote control and its own artificial intelligence system.

Once the purview of science fiction and computer games, DARPA has made “battlebots” a reality. The US Army’s Armed Predator, a small, unmanned plane equipped with a laser, has been a harbinger of things to come.

Such high tech weapons make excellent targets for isolated attack from shoulder mounted missles, mines and suicide attacks, so application in combat situations is somewhat limited.

On the other hand, such combat robots have some advantages. For instance, depending upon their energy sources such weapons could be dropped or planted well in advance of being activated.

Depending upon their match to terrain a flock of such robots could work link up into a ground-based, surveillance network.

No need for the “if captured” warning. Indeed, in some situations these robots could have counter-terrorism potential, since those that use human suicide as weapon want to avoid being the target of such acts. And, where power source exploding is thought of as a “bad thing” in the transportation industry, the controlled explosion of power sources could increase the robot’s usefulness as a combat weapon.

Furthermore, if increasing robots are used for hazardous duty, some clever weapons engineer surely has thought of one that deploys such weaponry. Since these combat robots theoretically could be used for high risk missions where other losses are unacceptable, another possible application for such a combat robot is to retrieve friends from behind enemy lines.