Robots At War

From an article by P.W. Singer, the author of Wired For War, in the Winter 2009 issue of the Wilson Quarterly:

"The “soldier” in this case was a 42-pound robot called a PackBot. About the size of a lawn mower, the PackBot mounts all sorts of cameras and sensors, as well as a nimble arm with four joints. It moves using four “flippers.” These are tiny treads that can also rotate on an axis, allowing the robot not only to roll forward and backward using the treads as a tank would, but also to flip its tracks up and down (almost like a seal moving) to climb stairs, rumble over rocks, squeeze down twisting tunnels, and even swim underwater. The cost to the United States of this “death” was $150,­000. "

There is also the NPR interview with him available @ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99663723

And the launch event of the Wired For War book may be found @ http://www.brookings.edu/events/2009/0126_wired.aspx