SWORDS military robots deployed in Iraq are being recalled due to command & control problems. Nobody’s been hurt, but armed uncontrolled bots seem to make people nervous for some reason. Seems that Noel Sharkey was right to be concerned about this as we reported just a few months ago.
The SWORDS (Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System) units are basically machine guns strapped to bomb-disposal robots, and not purpose-built for reconnaissance and counterinsurgency. However, this approach/platform has too much potential to abandon, and so it’s probably try-again time for bot-maker Foster-Miller, but with the successor MAARS robot instead, as depicted below…
Update on April 15, 2008 … apparently the reported undeployment of those SWORDS ground robots is not completely accurate. According to Stew Magnuson of National Defence Mag, the robots are now in “fixed positions” as opposed to being on active patrol. The article also has a funny comment from some crank who says that these bots can be defeated simply by sneaking up from behind and “tossing a blanket over it”.
Non-Answer on Armed Robot Pullout From Iraq Reveals Fragile Bot Industry – Popular Mechanics, April 9 2008
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Send the robots–save our troops!
Completely agree. However, we should never trust a robot too much!
In the future, we should fight all wars just with robots.
I agree about not trusting robots too smart, especially if they start developing minds of their own, so to speak.