Remote robots can do our fighting for us, reports JOHN HOLDEN
AH WHAT BETTER way for a father and son to bond than through their mutual interest in robotic boxing? Real Steelstarring Hugh Jackman (better known as Wolverine in X-Men) is like something straight out of a Cecilia Ahern novel. Well not quite, but somehow the makers of a movie about fighting robots managed to find space in the plot to bring a father back to his estranged son. What's it all about? In the not too distant future, people have become bored with regular boxing so a new sport is created – robotic boxing in which robots fight it out in the ring while being remotely controlled by a human safely hidden from the actual violence.
This might not seem that original an idea for anyone old enough to remember the TV show Robot Wars. But that, like Real Steel, is just TV land. In fact, we use robots all the time to do our dirty work, particularly in war. No country does military technology better than the United States which has all manner of robotic tanks, planes and drones doing an increasing amount of its most dangerous special ops abroad.
“The US has a large amount of unmanned drones both in Afghanistan and Iraq, which have actually been stepped up under President Obama,” explains Thomas Holz of the UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics.
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has several research projects into the use of robotics in the military. "The current big one is exo-skeletons," says Holz. "You essentially wear a robotic suit that can help you lift weights of up to 300 pounds. Something similar can be seen in the movie
Aliens 2. They expect this technology to be rolled out in the next five or 10 years."
Drones are the main military tool used by the US. These unmanned vehicles can be land, sky or sea based. “Most of them are controlled from the ground but the controller could be anywhere,” says Holz. “A lot of the drones in Afghanistan are controlled by people in the CIA or National Security Agency back in the US by satellite link up. But there is a lag in the satellite transmission of about one second, so some manoeuvring has to be done automatically.” The technology seems so advanced that the prospect of human-free warfare must one day be possible.