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The Growing Sophistication of Military Robotics
The military is quite frequently the innovating agency where technology that eventually becomes available to the general population is concerned. Military robotics, while still in its infancy compared to the sci-fi fueled concepts of the field held in the popular imagination, is advancing at a rapid pace. Most robots in use today differ from the popular conception of what constitutes a robot in significant ways but, with each passing year, they begin to resemble more and more the versatile and capable devices seen in films and on television.
When most people think of robotics being used by the military, they likely think of the robot soldiers—oftentimes run amok—that constitute the antagonists in many popular futuristic tales. Today's military, however, uses robots which are largely incapable of making their own decisions. These are not beings which are one subroutine away from sentience but, rather, are basically remote-controlled devices that allow soldiers to perform exceptionally dangerous duties—such as defusing bombs—from a safe distance while making use of the tools built in to the robot to perform the work. The level of sophistication and the articulation of the robot limbs and tools is constantly increasing to meet new challenges.
Though it's not directly military, the Mars Rover project is an example of robot technology that has both military and civilian applications. Robots are capable of working in environments that are too hazardous for humans and, as the rover proved, they can perform very complex tasks under the direct control of their operators from distances as short as 100 yards or as long as millions of miles. This sort of sophistication, while impressive, is a long way from the self-aware beings which haunt the nightmares of those who fear the potential outcomes of the science of robotics.
Neither the military nor any civilian agency has yet been able to create a robot that is capable of making independent decisions. The unmanned aircraft in use by the US army today are powerful and capable devices but require a human being to make their targeting and in-flight decisions. Someday, perhaps, robots will be capable of functioning without a great deal of human intervention but the android types seen making moral and ethical decisions in science fiction are enormously more complex than anything of which our current level of technology is capable. If that goal is to be realized, it is likely hundreds of years away.