Terminator Come True in Taser Robots?

Jun 29, 11:09 AM

Current Headlines: BOSTON -- RoboCops and robot soldiers got a little closer to reality Thursday as a maker of floor-cleaning automatons teamed up with a stun-gun manufacturer to arm track-wheeled 'bots for police and the Pentagon.

By adding Tasers to robots it makes for the military, iRobot Corp. says it hopes to give soldiers and law enforcement a defensive, nonlethal tool.

But some observers fear such developments could ultimately lead to robots capable of deciding on their own when to shoot and kill.

"It's one more step in that direction," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a military research organization.

"I think at some point toward the end of the next decade, you're going to start seeing RoboCops, or a Terminator," Pike said, referring to a pair of 1980s robot-themed sci-fi films.

Jim Rymarcsuk, vice president for business development of iRobot, said notions of armed robots acting on their own are far beyond what the company envisions for the partnership with Taser International.

"Right now, we have no plans to take any robot with a lethal- weapon approach to the market," Rymarcsuk said. "For this system, and all systems we have looked at, there is a human in the loop making the decisions. This in no way is giving the robot the capability to use force on its own."

There's no word when the system will be offered for sale, or for how much.

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