From Stealthy Helicopter to Stealthy Robot

The attack on Bin Laden used stealthy helicopters that had been top secret according to The New York Times, refering to aviation analysts, who studied news photographs of the surviving tail section revealing modifications to muffle noise and reduce the chances of detection by radar. The commandos blew up one of the helicopters after it was damaged in a hard landing.

U.S. Stealthy Helicopter Program
The U.S. military first started its helicopter stealth program in the 1980s, with AH-6 Little Bird attack helicopters. In the 1990s, U.S. Special Operations Command reportedly began working with Lockheed-Martin and Boeing to take some of the stealth technology used on the F-117 Nighthawk attack aircraft, and apply it to MH-60 Black Hawks. In 2004 the stealthy Comanche helicopter project was canceled after billions of dollars in cost overruns. With the lack of anti-aircraft threats in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army officials decided that full-scale production of stealth copters was not worth the cost.

U.S. Stealthy Robot Project

Credit: Lockheed Martin

Researchers at Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories (ATL) are working also on future military robotics systems that will be expected to perform with the same context understanding and impact awareness as their human counterparts. These capabilities will be required for both specific missions such as reconnaissance and surveillance as well as in everyday operations. In 2010 ATL has launched a research effort that focuses on developing a robot that could dynamically determine the path of least detection and audibly detect threats. To operate robustly, robots must be capable of perceiving various aspects of the world and reasoning over an integrated world model. Lockheed Martin ATL has developed a multi-layered world model representation that combines obstacles, threats and light sources to create a complete indivisilility model that can be used for planning in complec environments.

The robot is capable to covert robotic movement for reconnaissance, real-time audible detection and avoidance of threats, provides situation awareness via video and still imagery, extends the awareness of the warfighter while reducing risk.

The bot listens for sounds of human activity and the based on those sounds, and some clever programming, makes a guess as to where the humans might be looking. Then, if it needs to, the robot will find itself a dark hiding spot. The robot is equipped with a 3D laser scanner that allows the bot to create detailed maps of the building or area it is in. Along with a set of acoustic sensors that allow the robot to localize footsteps and voices, it can make a fairly accurate predictions about where you are on the map. When the robot sense a human is near it takes its pre-determined escape route to the dark and waits for the danger to pass, which means it may not be so stealthy in places lacking darkness or escape routes.

Military Robotics Business Opportunities & Risks

ABI Research has released a new research report titled ‘Defense Robots: UAVs, UGVs, UUVs and Task Robots for Military Applications’. The study predicts that the global military robotics market will experience significant growth from $5.8 billion in 2010 to around $8 billion in 2016.

In the report Autonomous Military Robotics: Risk, Ethics, and Design (2008) Patrick Lin, Prof. George Bekey, and Keith Abney, Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group at California Polytechnic State University recommend "not to unduly rush the process" of introducing robots in military affairs without a rigorous testing phase of robots. They discuss the challenge of creating autonomous military robots that can act reliably according the Laws of War and most Rules of Engagement, i.e. to distinguish enemy combatants from non-combatants. They conclude that military robots aimed to also replace human soldiers, especially in ‘dull, dirty, and dangerous’ jobs, raise novel ethical and social questions that should be raised "before irrational public fears or accidents arising from military robotics derail research progress and national security interests."

Credit: Talon Metal Storm

Robot Arms Control

According to the International Committee for Robot Arms Control, ICRAC, more than 40 countries already have robotic programs and even Iran has launched a UAV bomber with a range of several hundred miles. Unmanned robot systems are still difficult to develop but easy to copy. The committee fears that advances in robotic systems will lead to more countries committing to war, since robots would be taking the place of humans on the battlefield. The biggest concern for the future is autonomous systems that select targets themselves. ICRAC is promoting the regulation and control of armed military robots including a prohibition on the further development of armed autonomous robots and the setting of restrictions on armed tele-operated drones for applications such as targeted killings in sovereign territories not at war.

US $ 8 Billion for War Robots in 2016

Worldwide, as many as 80 countries already are using or are acquiring robots for military use, according to ABI Research. The market for military robots is growing from $5.8 billion in 2010 to $8 billion in 2016, ABI said in a mid February 2011 report. 

There are an estimated 2,000 robots in Afghanistan today. They're mainly used for explosive ordnance disposal, but they're branching out. Equipped with wire cutters, spades, rakes and cameras they are used for clearing supply routes and inspecting vehicles at checkpoints.

The US Defence Budget for 2012 continues strong funding for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) that enhance intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. The base budget includes $4.8 billion to develop and procure additional Global Hawk Class (RQ-4), Predator Class (MQ-1/9), and other less expensive, low-altitude systems.

Robert Moses, head of the government and industrial robots division of Boston-based iRobot, expects the number of Unmanned Ground robots will rise from 1:50 to 1:30 troops in combat. Today, one soldier typically operates one robot, but with improvements in robots' ability to operate autonomously, Moses foresights one operator controlling 5 to 10 robots. iRobot PacBots cost today $100,000 to $200,000 apiece depending on their sensor packages.

US$ 38 Million for Spiderbots
BAE Systems, 2nd largest global defence company based on 2009 revenues, develop miniature robots, Spiderbots, to to enhance warfighter's tactical situational awareness in urban and complex terrain by enabling the autonomous operation of a collaborative ensemble of multifunctional, mobile microsystems. BAE Systems  leads the $38 million MAST project in alliance of researchers and scientists from the Army, academia and industry.

Credit: ARL CTA

The goal for the MAST project are small scale robots that can autonomously plan and execute military missions,  readily adapt to changing environments and scenarios and learn from prior experience. The robots share common understanding with team members and seamlessly integrate unmanned systems into military and civilian society. They manipulate objects with near-human dexterity and maneuver  through three dimensional environments.
Bio-inspired Spiderbots are small scale, stealth designed robots that can maneuver in confined spaces, autonomously and in swarms with minimum human control for navigation.

A senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Peter W. Singer, and author of "Wired for War", calls robots on the battlefield "an amazing revolution" that "change not just how wars are fought, but also the politics, economics, laws, and ethics that surround war itself."
Robot Arms Control Needed
At the First Experts Workshop on Limiting Armed Tele-Operated and Autonomous Systems in Berlin 2010 the risks and dangers that military robots pose to peace and international security and to civilians in war were discussed and resulted in a statement that proclaims "an urgent need to bring into existence an arms control regime to regulate the development, acquisition, deployment, and use of armed tele-operated and
autonomous robotic weapons."
"Point-of-no-return" Warning
Nicholas Hunt-Bull, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Political Theory in the School of Arts and Sciences, Southern New Hamshire University, argues in his 2006 essay A Neo-Luddite Manifesto: or Why I Do Not Love Robots "we should be leery of embracing ubiquitous use of robots in society. Once the technology is deployed it will be too late to go back."
See also: Warning signals about the "Robotic Moment" and Robotics in the Mind of Ray Kurzweil for further reflection.

US$ 1,6 Million for BattleBot Competition Winner

The MAGIC 2010 international robotics competition, the first of its kind in the world, has been established to attract academia and industry teams to develop fully autonomous robots for military, commercial and civilian emergency applications.

Twelve of the world’s most technologically-savvy universities and several innovative companies have teamed up and are now finalists in an international robotics competition with a U.S. $1.6 million prize.

In addition to the prize money, winning teams will have a unique opportunity to work with American and Australian military organizations to develop the advanced robots that will work alongside – and instead of – Soldiers on future battlefields.