Germany is recruiting robot soldiers… Cool!
The ideal soldier of the future knows no fear or fatigue, coolly picks the optimal way out of mortal danger and can even survive explosions with nothing but scratches: meet the military robot.
The German army took a first close look this week at potential robot recruits, inviting inventors to an infantry training ground at Hammelburg, 85 kilometres east of Frankfurt, to demonstrate what land robots can do.
Officers liked what they saw.
Major-General Wolfgang Korte, head of the army administration, was impressed at the range of capabilities.
‘I’ve seen how much they can do,’ he said at the European Land Robot Trial (ELROB), described as Europe’s first competitive display of robots in uniform.
Fire brigades and police were also invited to the event, which was confined mainly to autonomous vehicles on wheels and tracks. Self- guided aircraft and submarines appear at other venues.
Korte is keen to acquire autonomous devices to aid human soldiers, but cannot place procurement orders without German government approval.
Lieutenant-Colonel Juergen Ammann, overseeing the show, said he hoped the German armed forces could acquire such robots within the next five years, but admitted, ‘Right now, we’re at the very start.’
READ: German Army invites robots to recruiting office
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