Internet millionaire Ben Way thinks otherwise. Just a few days ago he founded a company called “Weapons Against Robots”, short WAR, specialized in creating weapons for autonomous combat against robots.
The company will “combat the potential threats posed by artificial intelligence through the creation of anti-robot weaponry, detection and monitoring of robots, and use of anti-robot viruses. Way believes that, as AI is increasingly used in warfare and defense, it is prudent to ready countermeasures in the event, not only of an enemy’s use of robotics, but that an intelligence’s programming goes awry.”
On their official website, they show some of their ideas how to fight robots, like AAA (Autonomous Against Robot) and BAA (Biological Against Robot), although I don’t really understand what biological weapons could do against robots… bacteria fighting metal and plastic?
They also want to supply detection systems and so called “Robo virus systems”, computer viruses being channelled into the attacking robot to gain control over it. Another interesting idea is a mini microwave bomb which can destroy the electrical circuitry.

I think currently there is no threat of being attacked by robots, but it’s better to be prepared for what will come, otherwise movies like “I, Robot” won’t be science fiction any more…
This statement I found here is also quite interesting:

“Sounds good to me. Maybe WAR and FUBOTS should join forces. What do you say, Ben? I hate those evil mothers with a passion. Even more so since I lost my girlfriend to a vibrator.”

This video shows quite good what may happen when we aren’t prepared to fight against robots =)

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1. Intelligent Surveillance and & Security Guard Robot

Scientists have found a way to send signals to a rat’s brain and thus controlling its movements. A backpack receives radio signals sent from a nearby laptop (up to 500m away) which are sent to electrodes implanted in the rat’s brain. The brain recognises this small electrical stimulus and interprets it as an object touching its whiskers.

Sending signals to the electrode which in the part of the brain which handles information from the right whisker makes the rat turn right. With a second electrode for the left whisker, the scientists can make the rat turn the way they want it to.
Another electrode is connected to the part of the brain which makes the rat feel pleasure. A signal to this part tells the rat its going the controller want it to.

See more about it in this video:

The scientists plan to use it to locate survivors of earthquakes or make them find land mines. With their small size and low weight, they would fit into any heap of rubble and wouldn’t trigger a mine.

More information on these websites:

• http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/05/0501_020501_roborats.html
• http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E0DE153AF936A25751C1A9649C8B63
• http://wireheading.com/roborats/ratbots.html

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“Until now, technology allowed these robots to conduct monitoring functions only. But now our robots can detect suspicious moving objects, literally go after them, and can even fire at them!”
Sang-Il Han, principal research engineer at Samsung Techwin

The system uses its voice recognition to identify approaching persons. If the intruder is unable to provide the necessary access code when at a distance of ten meters, the Samsung SGR-A1 can either sound an alarm, fire rubber bullets or make use of its Daewoo K3 5,56mm machine gun which has a shooting rate of up to 1000 bullets per minute. It is equipped with both optical and infrared sensors to identify and follow targets from 4 km in daylight and around half that distance at night. It can differentiate between men, animals, vehicles and the environment. A rocket launcher may be used as secondary weapon.

South Korea’s northern border is the most heavily militarized zone in the world, and the southern government has poured millions of dollars into automated military technology. Hundreds of these robots could be deployed along the 248 km long zone dividing the two Koreas as well as along the country’s coastline and at military airfields. Prototypes have been tested in 2007, and the South Korean government plans to buy 1000 of these robots at US$200.000 each.

Experts criticize the loss of human control over force of arms. They expect the rate of wrong decisions of the software to be higher than a human’s. There may also be a way to manipulate the robot.

When I first found information about this robot around a year ago, there was plenty of stuff written on the official Samsung Techwin website, on Wikipedia and so on. Now it is not mentioned at all at the Techwin site, the Wikipedia article is gone, … Do they want to hide their invention?

Links:

• Demonstration Video of the SGR-A1
• Official Samsung Techwin website (removed)
• vnunet.com report
• German wikipedia article

Here is another interesting Security Robot, and it shows quite good why there shouldn’t be any automated fighting robots I think:

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