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Robots Go To War

AP photo

Soldiers, maneuver a robot into a cave to detect mines, traps, and other unexploded ordnance as well as weapons or equipment possibly hidden by Taliban or al-Qaida fugitives.

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By KURT LOFT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 25, 2007

TAMPA - Thousands of U.S. soldiers have been killed, injured or permanently crippled because of small explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan, turning the simplest job in the field into a life-threatening ordeal.

How can the military better protect its people?

Robots.

Last month, the Pentagon spent $45 million for 40 small, remotely controlled robots, to be delivered by June. The iRobot Corp., based in Burlington, Mass., is providing the devices, called PackBots, along with 300 high-performance radios to control them. The company makes what it calls behavior-based, artificially intelligent robots.

The point is simple: Experts say the technology can do things people can't and can save lives in dangerous situations. This is why robots are becoming common in the field of battle, not unlike trained dogs on police squads.

"The robots can be outfitted for a variety of life-saving missions," said Fryske Helms, a spokesman for iRobot, which was founded in 1990 by roboticists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Searching and inspecting dangerous areas, identifying and disposing of mines and bombs, detecting snipers, patrolling perimeters, clearing routes and re-supplying troops in the field."

The PackBot is able to navigate in all weather conditions, memorize terrain and alter its "behavior" according to the task.

The 42-pound robot can carry payloads equal to its own weight at speeds up to 6 mph, operating on a single battery for a full day. One PackBot is designed to detect enemy snipers using a sophisticated system of lasers, infrared imaging and cameras. Another device, called Fido, can "smell" bomb vapors, such as those from hidden improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

A buzz phrase is "digital architecture," a term that describes how robots can be customized for a mission or series of missions, carrying different payloads, instruments or even weapons systems. With this plug-in-and-play technology, a troop of robots can be programmed to do a job as a team.

The U.S. military currently uses about 1,000 ground-based robots in the field, and their complement should continue to grow, Helms said.

"Looking at the technical history of military equipment and the major advances of recent years," Helms said, "it's fair to predict that robots will become standard equipment for military forces."

The need for robots alongside soldiers on the battlefield is critical, said Selmer Bringsjord, chairman of the department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. He believes the war on terrorism, for instance, requires three technologies: pervasive, all-seeing sensors; automated "reasoners"; and autonomous, lethal robots.

"Today we need small machines that can see and hear in every corner," Bringsjord said, "machines smart enough to understand and reason over the raw data these sensing machines perceive."

The iRobottechnology is similar to that of the civilian robots developed by Robin Murphy, a professor in the department of computer science and engineering at the University of South Florida. Murphy's robots have been used in a number of search and rescue operations, including the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and the Utah coal mine collapse in August.

Reporter Kurt Loft can be reached at (813) 259-7570 or kloft@tampatrib.com.

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