Robotics in the military

Introduction
The use of robots in military is not new, from World War 2 and in the Cold war as
mine tracking machine and soviet teletanks. 1 The use of robots in military
increased as army didnt want to lose more men in the battlefield and they could
do some more dangerous works. Now military robots are not limited to the
ground, there are unmanned drones which are used in spying, carrying out
attacks. Robots do not get tired; they dont know fear thats why their use is
increasing in the military.
The current interesting topic in robotics is how we can make them more
intelligent, so they can differentiate between right & wrong. 2 Even recently Texas
police used a bomb delivery robot to kill a suspected killer who killed five
enforcement officers.3

Ongoing work-

Military robots are the autonomous robots or remotely controlled, but mostly are remote
controlled thats the major difference between industrial robots and military robots. Right
now the robots are made for army are usually helping them carrying their heavy arms and
ammunitions, autonomous vehicle (Drones) are being used as tools for surveillance and
attacking on difficult targets.4 The unstructured terrain environment plays a crucial role in
operating a robot as it put more pressure on the robots propulsion system, it demands better
power management which comes from advanced fuel cells and newly designed battery &
charging system.5

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_robot
2 http://www.electronicsteacher.com/robotics/current-research.php
3 http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/military-robots/should-the-policehave-robot-suicidebombers
4 5 http://www.robotics.org/content-detail.cfm/Industrial-Robotics-IndustryInsights/Robotics-in-Security-and-Military-Applications/content_id/3112
5

Figure 1 Google robot testing

Future workEngineers need to consider ascend & descend obstacles in uneven surface and
the effects of the center of gravity, torque requirements to ascend inclines, mass
and payloads when designing mobile robotic system for the military purpose. 6
Companies are working on humanoid droids like ATLAS which is capable of doing
every work can be done by humans, now they want it to be fully autonomous. 7
Work on cyborgization of human soldiers has also in implementation as it
combines the quick reaction time, precision and strength of robotics system and
the control and superior cognitive abilities of humans i.e. Land Warrior 8 but the
gear is still too heavy and exoskeletons that allow soldiers to carry more weight
lacks sufficient power source. Again there are a lot questions ethical concerns
arises on the being autonomy of the robots can they distinguish targets and use
force proportionately?9

6 http://www.robotics.org/content-detail.cfm/Industrial-Robotics-IndustryInsights/Robotics-in-Security-and-Military-Applications/content_id/3112
7 https://www.technologyreview.com/s/517136/meet-atlas-the-robot-designed-tosave-the-day/
8 http://www.army-technology.com/projects/land_warrior/
9 http://robohub.org/robots-soldiers-and-cyborgs-the-future-of-warfare/