Infra_Man99
Banned Idiot
I could not find a thread dedicated to ground robots, so I created one.
Anyhow, lots of nations are creating ground robots. The US came out with the TALON in 2000 and the US is constantly upgrading the TALON for recon, bomb disposal, and firing a broad range of small arms (machine guns, grenades, and rockets).
South Korea is building robot sentries, robot soldiers, and robot scouts. South Korea hopes to start fielding ground robots by 2013. All of them will be remote-controlled with some artificial intelligence.
Practically every nation with a sizable military industry is building their own ground robots (and UAVs and unmanned ships).
The main drawbacks are the robots' communication line (can give away position or can be jammed), clumsy imaging, lack of endurance on its own, and poor AI. Some proponents say ground robots cost less to build, maintain, fix, and use than human grunts, and people do not care about robots getting "killed" or suffering injuries. However, a captured or disabled robot can easily be turned against you if your enemy has the industry to reprogram/hack the robot or cannibalize the robot. Robots need strong electronic-warfare capabilities and stealthy communication lines (especially if they are remote-controlled) or superb AI.
Nonetheless, robots will only get better and more affordable as time goes on. Even if robots lack a good AI and stealthy communication lines, affordable robots can always be used for bomb control, to lead a charge to absorb initial attacks, to rush in to locate the enemy hidden in a building/cave/forest, and to exchange the first shots with the enemy (distraction).
Imagine an army of 200,000 grunts remotely controlling an army of 200,000 robots to lead an attack. After the robots reveal enemy locations and soften up the enemy or the robots are destroyed by the enemy, then the grunts come in. Then bring in 200,000 more robots to search and destroy the retreating enemy forces.
With a coordinated attack consisting of robot ground units, robot air units, and robot sea units (all controlled by humans), a robot army can launch a fearless and "zero" casualty initial attack anytime during a war.
Anyhow, lots of nations are creating ground robots. The US came out with the TALON in 2000 and the US is constantly upgrading the TALON for recon, bomb disposal, and firing a broad range of small arms (machine guns, grenades, and rockets).
South Korea is building robot sentries, robot soldiers, and robot scouts. South Korea hopes to start fielding ground robots by 2013. All of them will be remote-controlled with some artificial intelligence.
Practically every nation with a sizable military industry is building their own ground robots (and UAVs and unmanned ships).
The main drawbacks are the robots' communication line (can give away position or can be jammed), clumsy imaging, lack of endurance on its own, and poor AI. Some proponents say ground robots cost less to build, maintain, fix, and use than human grunts, and people do not care about robots getting "killed" or suffering injuries. However, a captured or disabled robot can easily be turned against you if your enemy has the industry to reprogram/hack the robot or cannibalize the robot. Robots need strong electronic-warfare capabilities and stealthy communication lines (especially if they are remote-controlled) or superb AI.
Nonetheless, robots will only get better and more affordable as time goes on. Even if robots lack a good AI and stealthy communication lines, affordable robots can always be used for bomb control, to lead a charge to absorb initial attacks, to rush in to locate the enemy hidden in a building/cave/forest, and to exchange the first shots with the enemy (distraction).
Imagine an army of 200,000 grunts remotely controlling an army of 200,000 robots to lead an attack. After the robots reveal enemy locations and soften up the enemy or the robots are destroyed by the enemy, then the grunts come in. Then bring in 200,000 more robots to search and destroy the retreating enemy forces.
With a coordinated attack consisting of robot ground units, robot air units, and robot sea units (all controlled by humans), a robot army can launch a fearless and "zero" casualty initial attack anytime during a war.