Terminator Judgement Day approaching
A competition to create a robot capable of operating in urban warfare conditions was launched by Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) on Tuesday. The robot who completes an as yet unreleased obstacle course in record time will be declared the winner.
Currently, robots deployed for urban warfare missions are normally operated remotely by a human. DSTA wants scientists to create an A.I. powered robot that “must, on its own, be able to navigate both indoors and outdoors in an urban landscape and accomplish a set of assigned tasks within a stipulated time”.
Having seen the way modern warfare is carried out, moving from building to building, it is easy to see why armies throughout the world would love to have something like this in their arsenal.
Participants must submit their applications by May 2007 and will be shortlisted soon thereafter. The shortlisted robots will try to pass a qualification round in May 2008 and a final round, in August 2008, will crown the robot warrior.
Is anyone else having vision of robots taking over the world such as in the Terminator movies. Scary stuff!