Many will say that robots were first invented as a tool to replace human beings in dangerous situations.
Companies like Clearpath Robotics has a mission statement that wants to provide robots to help with the worlds dullest, dirtiest and most dangerous jobs…which is a very positive way of approaching robotics.
One can think of few places more dangerous than in a military or war like environment.
In this section we will look at some main categories of military robotics including:
- land mines and detonation
- carry equipment (land/water/sky)
- body suits or exoskeletons
- soldiers (manned or remote unmanned)
This toy below is an example of a manned robot where the operator sits in the chair and controls a robot about 10 times larger than he or she is and has strength of a highway construction crane.
This type of machine was used in many hollywood movies but the main point is that the operator sits in it well protected like a tank and operates joysticks to move and to move the huge hydraulic arms and whatever weaponry is available to it.
The above photo is simply a toy robot which could represent an umanned autonomous fighting robot or one controlled remotely a thousand miles away by the operator.