- In wartime, one of the most perilous assignments is to
walk the point - taking the lead on patrol.
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- The enemy can shoot a point-man dead without warning.
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- Soon, the soldier walking point could be a robot.
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- "These little robots are kind of like kamikaze warriors,"
said George Osgood, founder of RoboTrix, a company that has developed two
robot prototypes for the US military - nicknamed Gladiator and Spike.
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- About the size of washing machines, Gladiator and Spike
are armoured engines guided by computers. The robots can travel unmanned
into the most dangerous situation.
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- Osgood's tough little robots are being developed to replace
human soldiers.
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- "We're looking at transforming the entire organisational
structure of the Army's fighting force," said Curt Adams, a vehicle
researcher at the Army's Tank, Automotive and Armaments Command in Detroit.
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- The transformation is already under way.
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- In 1999, the US military sent unmanned aerial vehicles
called "drones" on scouting missions over Kosovo.
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- Robots have also been pressed into service by some police
departments.
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- Northrop Grumman, one of the chief developers of robotic
systems, has built about 1,500 robots to handle dangerous situations like
bomb disposals, SWAT missions, gas leaks and collapsing mines, said Shawn
Farrow of Northrop's Remotec division in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
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- The Navy is testing unmanned mini-submarines at its Space
and Naval Warfare Systems Centre in San Diego. It is also developing unmanned
hovercraft that resemble fictional 1950s- vintage flying saucers. The flying
craft gather intelligence while hovering quietly.
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- "We can save lives with this," said Virginia
Young, chief of the concept lab in Alabama's Aviation Missile Research
Development and Engineering Centre. Young, a pioneer in robotics since
the early 1980s, says research began to accelerate when the Joint Robotics
Program at the Department of Defence was created in 1989.
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- The military sought agile and inexpensive robots or drones
that can be easily manufactured or repaired.
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- "We want to save lives and save money," said
Mike Tuscano, co- ordinator of the Joint Robotics Program. "If you
can do both, so much the better."
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- The smarter computers get, the more the military and
police will rely on robots to handle jobs that Tuscano and his fellow Pentagon
researchers call the Three Ds - dirty, dangerous or dull.
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- "For example, rather than having 18- or 19-year-olds
guarding weapons igloos and shooting at sagebrush to kill time, we can
let the machines do the Three Ds," Tuscano said.
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- Likely assignments for robots include surveillance, clearing
land mines, responding to chemical weapons releases, exchanging messages
during hostage negotiations and - a kamikaze role - guiding weapons to
target.
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- Armies will still need human soldiers, but many may fight
from afar, using robots surrogates on the front lines.
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- Robot functions are still limited by shortcomings in
artificial intelligence. For now, systems run by remote control within
sight of the operator, or are guided by the operator using the machine's
onboard sensors.
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- Truly autonomous robots that think for themselves are
at least a decade away, Young says.
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- Some systems develop faster than others. Airborne robot
drones are simple to build and program because they don't have to navigate
obstructions, said Young. Effective land-based robots require more sophisticated
technology.
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- The military looks forward to disposable robots that
can handle a wide range of jobs, said John Koehler, of Northrop's land
combat systems in Chicago.
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- "You can have robots carry fuel, water, ammo, tag
along with a host vehicle, support radar systems or weapons systems, cut
concertina wire, clear minefields, even tow other robot parts or smaller
robots," said Kohler. "There are countless missions you could
serve."
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- "And if you lose some, you can send in plenty more
to replace them," he said.
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