Commentary: Robots and the end of war as we know it!

by Dominic Basulto

WASHINGTON - August 24, 2011 - Rapid advances in robotics technology, combined with the need for innovative new technologies to combat insurgents on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, are turning robots and unmanned drones into the next hot area of military innovation.

The most sophisticated of the new military bots weighs less than five pounds. Then there are others that can fit into your pocket and be connected via a mesh network. That network gives them the ability to coordinate activities, such as detonating improvised explosive devices or scouting out locations in real-time as part of a robot swarm.

Not surprisingly, the U.S. Army is now seeking to deploy thousands of these tiny military bots.

These miniature bots have the potential to transform the way the U.S. plans for and fights wars. Defense spending has meant the relentless scaling up of warfare for the past 50 years, with every new innovation resulting in advances that were more lethal and destructive than their predecessors. The U.S. military was measured in terms of airplanes, warships and tanks. Entire nations embarked on misguided attempts to close the missile gap with the U.S. Meanwhile, defense budgets could not shrink because military hardware could not shrink. Innovation meant bigger, more powerful, and more lethal weapons.

However, technology has redefined how we think about warfare. Intelligence and real-time data are now prized as highly as absolute destructive capacity. Miniature robots are one way to solve the military's "last mile" problem. Getting to Baghdad was easy, but the “last mile” - going door-to-door to root out insurgents cleverly disguised as normal civilians - is proving to be frustratingly difficult. Enter the Throwbot, a mini-robot that soldiers can lob into enemy locations, just as they’d throw a grenade.

Department of Defense and DARPA recognize the importance of robotics in guiding the future of military innovation. DARPA, in fact, has been a pioneer in the development of the driverless car and other discoveries at the leading edge of robotics. The future of warfare rests with tiny pocket bots, unmanned surveillance drones the size of insects, and cyber-hackers safely ensconced behind their computers, thousands of miles from the battlefront.