Autonomous Machines By: Tyler Roberts

History Started in WWII and the Cold War Now several military robots have been/are being deployed and developed by the armies of many countries. Many of this new technology can be credited to DARPA. With tracked mines and Soviet teletanks. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technologies for use by the military. DARPA has been responsible for funding the development of many technologies which have had a major effect on the world. DARPA has hosted competitions in 2004 & 2005 to involve private companies and universities to develop unmanned ground vehicles to navigate through rough terrain in the Mojave Desert for a final prize of $2 Million

Types of Military Autonomous Machines Ground Robots Aerial Robots Marine Robots Immobile/Fixed Robots

Types of Military Autonomous Machines Land/Ground mobility uses legs, treads, wheels, snake-like locomotion, and hopping. Flying robots are known to use propellers, jet engines, and wings. Underwater robots usually resemble submarines or boats when used above water. Some vehicles capable of moving in more than one medium or terrain have been built.

Ground Robots These small vehicles can/may be carried by a soldier in a backpack such as the PackBot. Typical armed robot vehicles are: Talon SWORDS MAARS The PackBot uses cameras and communication equipment for input and output, and may include arms. It is designed to find and detonate IEDs, as well as to perform reconnaissance. Since the PackBot is smaller, it can go into buildings, report on conditions, and trigger/disarm bombs. Talon SWORDS, which can be equipped with machine guns, grenade launchers, or anti-tank rocket launchers as well as cameras and other sensors able to autonomously navigate toward specific targets through its global positioning system, at present the firing of any on-board weapons is done by a soldier located a safe distance away.

Aerial Robots Unmanned flying vehicles (UAV’s) Reconnaissance while being unmanned, and carrying cargo/weapons Micro Air Vehicles (MAV) can carry a camera for reconnaissance, serving the same purpose as UAV’s but on a micro scale. Although the UAV’s are not directly threatening, the other type of commonly used aerial robot are the RQ-1/MQ-1 Predator and the MQ-9 Reaper. The very concerning statistics of the Predator and Reaper strikes will be covered in more detail in the “Moral/Legal/and Ethical Issues” section, but the basics will be covered here. As of March 2009, the U.S. Air Force had 195 MQ-1 Predators and 28 MQ-9 Reapers in operation. Since its first flight in July 1994, the MQ-1 series has accumulated over 1,000,000 flight hours [3]. There have been some developments towards developing autonomous fighter jets and bombers. The use of autonomous fighters and bombers to destroy enemy targets is especially promising because of the lack of training required for robotic pilots, autonomous planes are capable of performing maneuvers which could not otherwise be done with human pilots (due to high amount of G-Force). Plane designs do not require a life support system, and a loss of a plane does not mean a loss of a pilot. However, the largest draw back to robotics is their inability to accommodate for non-standard conditions [6].

Marine Robots Surface ships as well as Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) Surveillance, reconnaissance, and anti-submarine combat LMRS uses two sonar systems, an advanced computer and its own inertial navigation system to survey the ocean floor for up to 60 hours. Boeing's Long-term Mine Reconnaissance System (LMRS) is dropped into the ocean from a telescoping torpedo launcher aboard the SV Ranger to begin its underwater surveillance test mission. A large UUV, the Seahorse is advertised as being capable of ‘independent operations’, which may include the use of lethal weapons.

Immobile/Fixed Robots Both on land and on ships The Navy’s Phalanx Close-In Weapon System (CIWS). CIWS is a rapid-fire 20mm gun system designed to protect ships at close range from missiles which have penetrated other defenses The system is mounted on the deck of a ship; it is equipped with both search and tracking radars and the ability to rotate a turret in order to aim the guns. It automatically performs search, detecting, tracking, threat evaluation, firing, and kill-assessments of targets.

Moral/Legal/and Ethical Issues Arguments over the legal and ethical legitimacy of particular weapons poison as a weapon in war, for example, or the crossbow go back very far in the history of warfare. Who is responsible if the use of an autonomous weapon results in a violation of international humanitarian law? As a machine, an autonomous weapon could not itself be held responsible for a violation of international humanitarian law. This then raises the question of who would be legally responsible if the use of an autonomous weapon results in a war crime: the programmer, the manufacturer or the commander who deploys the weapon? If responsibility cannot be determined as required by international humanitarian law, is it legal or ethical to deploy such systems? Because so many questions remain unanswered

Moral/Legal/and Ethical Issues Predator and Reaper unmanned drones The success rates of these drones are very questionable. Below is a summary of US drone strikes as of January 2014: Total strikes: 381 Total reported killed: 2,537 - 3,646 Civilians reported killed: 416 - 951 Children reported killed: 168 - 200 Total reported injured: 1,128 - 1,557 The attacks greatly increased starting in 2008 and have spiked up and down ever since yearly. It is stated in a Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) report that of all the drone attack victims since 2004, more than 76% of the dead fall in the legal grey zone, 22% are confirmed civilians (included 5% minors) and only the remaining 1.5% are high-profile targets [5].

Conclusion Autonomous robots both on and off the battlefield will need to make choices in the course of fulfilling their missions Potentially harmful consequences for humans and other agents worthy of moral consideration Implementing moral decision-making faculties within robots will proceed slowly

References http://ethics.calpoly.edu/ONR_report.pdf http://media.hoover.org/sites/default/files/documents/Anderson-Waxman_LawAndEthics_r2_FINAL.pdf http://www.academia.edu/202045/The_Ambiguous_Ethical_Status_of_Autonomous_Robots http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/faq/q-and-a-autonomous-weapons.htm http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2009/aug/19/autonomous-machines-systems-report http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/releases/shownews.htm?NewsID=511 http://techdigest.jhuapl.edu/TD/td2604/Watson.pdf http://illinoisjltp.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Kastan.pdf http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/403762/the-ascent-of-the-robotic-attack-jet/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-1_Predator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-9_Reaper http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/business/17uav.html?hp&_r=0 http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2014/02/03/january-2014-update-us-covert-actions-in-pakistan-yemen-and-somalia/ http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/03/drone-strikes-interactive-visualization-pitch

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