Will humanoid robots go to the battlefield?

Reference News Network, June 14 report The BBC website published an article titled "Will Humanoid Robots Go to the Battlefield?" on June 8, authored by Zoe Corbin. The full excerpt is as follows:

I arrived at a tech-heavy industrial area in San Francisco, expecting to see an imposing humanoid robot warrior engaged in combat-related activities. However, the sleek, expressionless "Phantom" robot was "freely playing," fiddling with a pile of colorful children's building blocks.

Sanket Patak, co-founder and CEO of the two-year-old startup Foundation Robotics, explained, "We need data for it to interact with the environment... that's what today's arrangement is for." The company is developing the "Phantom" robot for both military and civilian use.

Many companies today are manufacturing autonomous humanoid robots for factories, homes, or companionship, but Foundation Robotics claims to be the only U.S. company specifically developing humanoid robots for a wide range of defense applications.

This includes logistics support robots for tasks such as material handling, reconnaissance, equipment recovery, or casualty evacuation, as well as hazardous material detection. There are also more controversial tasks involving striking and neutralizing threats—Patak refers to this as "frontline weaponization."

He believes that equipping robots with weapons can keep human soldiers out of harm's way. They can enter and search buildings where there may be deadly ambush points.

Foundation Robotics has secured a $24 million research contract to conduct a technology collaboration pilot project with the U.S. military, and two robots are currently being tested by the Ukrainian military.

So, does the military really need humanoid robot soldiers? How difficult is their manufacturing? What ethical issues might arise?

Dean Vankhouser, a consultant on humanoid robot affairs, stated that the military is clearly interested in this. He pointed out that the U.S. Army is currently holding a humanoid robot competition, with the ultimate goal of enabling robots to support soldiers in a wide range of tasks. Vankhouser said this is "completely inevitable."

However, some robotics companies have drawn a line against weaponization, citing the risks of harm and ethical concerns.

Perhaps the biggest challenge is developing artificial intelligence that can operate in the real world and respond to unpredictable and complex situations.

Robert Griffin from the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition believes that humanoid robots have value in reducing risks for human soldiers, but he also noted that unpredictable environments remain a significant obstacle.

Getting a robot to jump through a height-unknown window, land on uneven ground, and immediately operate in an unfamiliar indoor environment is very difficult. Additionally, battery life is a problem that "plagues every humanoid robotics company"—movement and joint articulation consume a lot of power. Achieving a six-hour battery life is already "very impressive." (Translated by Guo Jun)