US military developing new breed of ‘humanoid robots’
The US Department of Defense is reportedly investing heavily in the field of robotics as the world’s greatest military machine seeks to build a new breed of ‘humanoid robots’ for deployment to disaster zones.
Intended for humanitarian assistance rather than warfare the silicon enhanced machines would be programmed to undertake jobs too dangerous for humans whilst remaining under supervision.
To meet this challenge the Pentagon is stumping up a $3.5m prize to software developers to push forward development of a robot intelligence capable of autonomously navigating chaotic environments.
This software will power the military’s prototype Atlas robot which stand at 6ft 2in tall to enable them to drive cars, walk over rubble and operate tools.