B. McPherson
Deadly drones are an all too common part of modern warfare. Death raining from the sky has terrorized the “bad guys” as well as the innocents. Much criticism has been stated about a video game type war where an operator gives the drone instructions to kill people half the globe away. They are so effective in creating terror and mayhem that it seems that all the modern militias want them.

Drones are increasingly being employed as surveillance tools with civilians as targets.

Now comes the really bad news. Work on military robots is already well advanced. The US proudly shows off its jumping robot, its running robot and its snakey robot. Once YouTube has videos of it, it is old news.

To forestall the development and deployment of killer robots, Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic are urging the banning of fully autonomous weapons. As far as the public knows, no military has yet produced a working model, but given the large sums spent on weapons and military research they are expected to become a reality unless they are stopped.

“It is essential to stop the development of killer robots before they show up in national arsenals,” Goose said. “As countries become more invested in this technology, it will become harder to persuade them to give it up.” Steve Goose, Human Rights Watch
 
To allow the deployment of such weapons paints a nightmare picture of a near future dystopia. Below is a two year old robot built to kill indoors.

B. McPherson

The US military is using ‘good old American knowhow’ to produce ever more bizarre weapons of war. It is a common thing for us to hear about drone strikes in countries that the US has an interest in. Those weapons are guided from within the continental US to strike enemies or others in far off areas.

Now there is a jumping robot. Dubbed Sand Flea this robot developed by Boston Dynamics is in its final testing before being deployed to Afghanistan. It will join about 2 000 other robots on the ground there. This little robot weighs only about 11 pounds but can leap about 30 feet in height with the aid of a carbon dioxide cartridge. The tough little machine can leap over compound walls and then back again; leap onto buildings; or leap into open second story rooms taking video all the time.

Currently in the works at Boston Dynamics is a robot called the Cheetah. It has maintained speeds up to 18 mph on a treadmill. It takes its inspiration from the fast cat.

Another military robot that Boston Dynamics seems particularly proud of is the Big Dog robot. They refer to it as “the alpha male” of their robots. I can think of other adjectives to describe it.

“In separate tests BigDog runs at 4 mph, climbs slopes up to 35 degrees, walks across rubble, climbs a muddy hiking trail, walks in snow and water, and carries a 340 lb load. BigDog set a world's record for legged vehicles by traveling 12.8 miles without stopping or refueling.

The ultimate goal for BigDog is to develop a robot that can go anywhere people and animals can go. The program is funded by the Tactical Technology Office at DARPA.” Boston Dynamics

RHex is the corporation’s sturdy, waterproof rough terrain gizmo. It is able to swim on the surface of water as well as climb stairs.

RISE is able to climb vertically using micro claws.

It is easy to imagine these machines being used to search collapsed buildings, peek into enemy’s fortifications and so on. The trick is to decide who the enemy is. Words such as combatants, militants, factions are used routinely to justify sometimes heavy handed action.

These weapons falling into the hands of a dictator or an overzealous protector of the public peace could be used to spy on and intimidate peaceful protesters at gatherings like Occupy Wall Street.

Robots could be sent into crowds to intimidate and record identities without risking the presence of fallible police.

There used to be a TV show called Robot Wars where hobbyists would pit their creations against one another in an arena. It makes me wonder how long it will be until the arena for robot wars widens to the whole world.