U.S. military use of robots increases

ST. LOUIS, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Military robots are no longer only science fiction, with the U.S. Army planning to have 30 percent of its forces composed of robots by 2020.

Washington University Assistant Professor Bill Smart and doctoral student Doug Few said the Army's robots won't resemble robotic soldiers from movies such as "Star Wars" and "I, Robot."

"When the military says 'robot' they mean everything from self-driving trucks up to what you would conventionally think of as a robot," said Smart, codirector of the university's Media and Machines Laboratory. "You would more accurately call them autonomous systems rather than robots."

All of the Army's robotic force is teleoperated, meaning someone operates the robot from a remote location.

"It's a chain of command thing," said Smart. "You don't want to give autonomy to a weapons delivery system."

While movies display robots as intelligent beings, Smart and Few aren't necessarily looking for intelligent decision-making in their robots. Instead, they're working to develop an improved, "intelligent" functioning robot.

"It's oftentimes like the difference between the adverb and noun," said Few. "You can act intelligently or you can be intelligent. I'm much more interested in the adverb for my robots."