The Pentagon's Robotic Army

Keywords: Pentagon, DARPA, future combat systems, robot, artificial intelligence, UAV

"Compared to many aeronautical curiosities that have taken wing at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at California’s Edwards Air Force Base over the years, the latest military test stunts did not appear very remarkable. Last April, a low-slung aircraft, about the size of a sport utility vehicle but with batlike wings similar to those of the B-2 stealth bomber, took off, flew at 10,500 meters and then dropped a 110-kilogram inert precision bomb while zipping along at 700 kilometers per hour. Four months later, a pair of the aircraft took off and flew together. These were modest stunts, to be sure, except for this fact: the jets have no pilots. They are the future of warfare, the first working models of networked autonomous attack jets, and the U.S. Department of Defense would like to start building them by 2010. ... Realizing this vision will require the creation of new airborne communications networks and a host of control systems that will make these jets more autonomous (though always under the ultimate control of a person) than anything built to date. These are the goals of a $4-billion, five-year program at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon's advanced research arm."

Link
Source: Technology Review

See also:
Future Combat Systems - Google Search
Future Combat Systems - Yahoo Search
Future Combat Systems - Google News
Future Combat Systems - Yahoo News
Robots - Defense Tech
Robots - Google News
Robots - Yahoo News
Robots News - Topix.net
Robotics news - Moreover
Robots - Technorati

Discuss:
Pentagon To Send Robot Soldiers to Iraq - Slashdot
Robots - tribe.net

Storyboard:
Warfighting in the 21st Century – The Remote, Robotic, Robust, Size-Reduced, Virtual Reality Paradigm - KurzweilAI.net

Audio:
Helen Greiner - Mobile Robots - IT Conversations

Another problem:
Where is the Robot-Valley?
The Global War of the 21st Century

Images:
Robots - Google Search
Robots - Yahoo Search
Future Combat Systems - Institute for Creative Technologies

Video:
Robots - Yahoo Search

Scenarios:
Robotic Nation - Marshall Brain

Learn:
How Robots Work - HowStuffWorks
How Military Robots Work - HowStuffWorks
How the Predator UAV Works - HowStuffWorks
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - MIT OpenCourseWare