Marines launch competition to fund, build next wave of battlefield robots

By Ed Oswald September 17, 2016

marine soldiers — Master Sgt. Christopher DeWitt

A few weeks ago we told you about the U.S. Marine Corps’ plans for laser weaponry. That’s not the only way the Corps is looking to modernize its fighting force, as officials have now announced an internal competition to research (and fund) ways for robots to replace humans on a variety of tasks.

The Marines already have teams tasked with developing battlefield robots, and have a prototype robot that works together with others in teams to supplement ground forces. However, here the effort is aimed at giving others outside of those robotics teams — whether they are military or civilians working with the Marines — a chance to get their ideas in front of the military brass.

Related Videos

Officials are looking for participants to “identify missions or tasks assigned to your unit that currently requires a Marine (or Marines) to accomplish, that could, and should, be replaced by robotic, autonomous, or unmanned systems. Missions or tasks that are prime candidates for autonomous solutions are typically dull, dirty or dangerous in nature,” according to a video launching the contest.

Given its work on other high tech warfare projects, it is not too surprising that the Marines Corps is looking to modernize its fighting force even further. Officials already have said they expect a quarter of the fighting force to be replaced by robots within 15 years, so creating a kind of competition to encourage more innovation seems smart.

One thing that robots will likely not do is the actual killing. The Pentagon has already all but announced its opposition to that, seemingly acknowledging its potentially controversial nature among politicians and ordinary Americans like.

What officials are in favor of having robots do all of the assorted side jobs necessary to support a fighting force, allowing our men and women in uniform to focus directly on fighting the enemy — a potential battlefield advantage.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Space

DARPA is building a robotic space mechanic to fix satellites in orbit

weaponized satellites and the cold war in space standoff

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that’s responsible for developing emerging technologies for the U.S. military, is building a new high-tech spacecraft -- and it’s armed. In an age of Space Force and burgeoning threats like hunter-killer satellites, this might not sound too surprising. But you’re misunderstanding. DARPA’s new spacecraft, currently “in the thick of it” when it comes to development, is armed. As in, it has arms. Like the ones you use for grabbing things.

Armed robots aren’t new. Mechanical robot arms are increasingly widespread here on Earth. Robot arms have been used to carry out complex surgery and flip burgers. Attached to undersea exploration vehicles, they’ve been used to probe submerged wrecks. They’ve been used to open doors, defuse bombs, and decommission nuclear power plants. They’re pretty darn versatile. But space is another matter entirely.
The trouble with satellites
To understand the problem, imagine this scenario: You buy a supercar. It’s got every possible modern luxury, from its use of premium materials like titanium and carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy composites to its top-of-the-range engine, which purrs like the world’s most expensive kitten. Only there’s a catch. Although the car has been built to last, once you’ve driven it off the sales lot, you’re no longer allowed to repair or even tinker with it. Nothing. Nada. Zip. It’s not even possible to take it to the gas station when it needs to be refueled. Crazy, right? Even the most extravagant of sports stars, rappers or international arms dealers would probably think twice about that “deal.”

Emerging Tech

The world needs a drone traffic control system, so AirMap is building one

AirMap technology in use

One hundred years ago, in late February 1920, the United Kingdom’s Air Ministry commissioned a first-of-its-kind building at the newly opened Croydon Airport. The U.K.’s inaugural international airport (now defunct) was home to an elevated wooden hut with four large windows that was grandly referred to as the Aerodrome Control Tower. It was the world’s first air traffic control center.

At the time, air travel was still in its infancy. Although the first commercial flight had taken place six years earlier, the era of mass air travel remained several decades away. Along with providing weather information to pilots, the job of the people who worked in the Aerodrome Control Tower was to mark the progress of approximately 12 daily flights, tracked using basic radio-based navigation, on paper maps by way of pins and flags. It was, needless to say, a simpler time.

Emerging Tech

Good at StarCraft? DARPA wants to train military robots with your brain waves

brain training future swarm robot armies ub video game 3

The 1984 movie The Last Starfighter tells the story of a teenager whose calling in life seems to be nothing more than to play arcade games. Fortunately, he’s spectacularly good at it. The game he’s best at is a video game called, as the movie’s title would have it, Starfighter. In it, the player must defend their homestead, The Frontier, from the perils of Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada by way of a series of wireframe laser battles.

But there’s a twist. It turns out that Starfighter isn’t simply a game; it’s actually a kind of test. The war with Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada is real, and the arcade game -- with its demands on rapid-fire reaction times on the part of players -- is a stealth recruiting tool, intended to seek out the best of the best to become genuine starfighters.